1. A Separate Peace by John Knowles

2. Author
John Knowles was born September 16, 1926 in Fairmont, West Virginia.
At the age of 15, Knowles attended New Hampshire’s prestigious Philips Exeter Academy (the setting of the novel, the Devon School, is based on his experience there).
Entered Yale University in 1944 and joined the U.S. Air Force shortly after
Graduated from Yale with a B.A. in English in 1949
Worked for several magazines as both a writer and a critic

3. Publication
In 1956 Cosmopolitan published Knowles’s short story, “Phineas,” which was later expanded into the novel, A Separate Peace.
Novel was rejected eleven times
Finally published in 1959 in London
First American edition was produced in February, 1960

4. What the Critics Said…
Immediate unanimous praise from British reviewers
Compared to J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye (1953)
Not an immediate best seller
By the 1960s a major part of high school English curriculums

5. Post-Publication Sold more than nine million copies to date
One of the most popular texts studied in high schools
Earned Knowles somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 a year in royalties
Knowles went on to publish several other novels, including Peace Breaks Out, a sequel to A Separate Peace (retained the Devon School setting but had a different cast of characters)
Sequel wasn’t as popular as the original

6. Historical Context
Novel takes place in the 1940s shortly after the United States had declared its involvement in WWII; had troops in Europe and the Pacific.
War brought out enormous levels of patriotism in all Americans
Compulsory military draft registration was a constant concern for young men; draft dodging was virtually unthinkable

7. Historical Context
Educational opportunities limited for African Americans and women
All-white, male prep schools: upper class student’s best chance to get into the best private universities
Pressure to succeed at these prep schools was great.

8. Setting
Set in 1942 at a boy’s boarding school, Devon School, in New Hampshire
Story is told as a flashback from the perspective of an older Gene – Knowles skips back and forth between the early 1940s (Gene as a teenager) and the late 1950s (Gene as an adult)

9. Characters Two best friends: Phineas and Gene
Phineas (Finny): athletic, reckless, charismatic
Gene: intellectual, shy, competitive
Others: Elwin Lepellier (Leper), Brinker Hadley, Phil Latham, Mr. Ludsbery, Cliff Quackenbush, Dr. Stanpole

10. Theme Topics
Coming of Age
Guilt and Innocence
War

11. Point of View Told in the first-person narrative style by Gene
Now an adult, he is looking at things from a much wiser and more mature perspective.