Collier, John - Anthony Burgess (essay date 1973)

Anthony Burgess (essay date 1973)

SOURCE: Burgess, Anthony. “Introduction.” In The John Collier Reader, pp. xi-xv. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973.

[In the following essay, Burgess surveys Collier's literary career.]

Ask the average Englishman about Milton, and he will say it is the name of a patent antiseptic. This is true, though not exclusively. Ask him about John Collier, and he will say that it is the name of a chain men's outfitters, probably adding the television jingle “John Collier, John Collier, the window to watch.” There is a nice irony about the fact that the real or immortal John Collier—writer, not tailor—is the last man in the world whose window is to be watched. He eschews fame and has a horror of publicity. He is probably happy enough to know that people regard The African Queen as a film with a great script, without being particularly interested in who wrote it, and that the novel His Monkey...

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