[This entry was updated by Hallman Bell Bryant (Clemson University) from the entry by Robert M. Nelson (University of Richmond) in the Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography, volume 6, pp. 120-135.]

John Knowles, the third of four children of James Myron and Mary Beatrice Shea Knowles, was born in Fairmont, West Virginia. He has an older brother and sister who are twins, and a younger sister. Knowles left West Virginia at fifteen to attend the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire during the World War II years. After graduating in 1945 he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force Aviation Cadet Program, eventually qualifying as pilot. Following his discharge after eight months, Knowles attended Yale University, serving briefly as an assistant editor for the Yale Alumni magazine after graduating in 1949; he then worked from 1950 to 1952 as a reporter and occasional drama critic for the Hartford Courant. Knowles was...