For the UALR English Department, this is J. Bradley Minnick with Facts About Fiction.
"To hell with civilization; up with instinct. "
John Anthony Burgess Wilson author of thirty-two novels, including The Wanting Seed and A Clockwork Orange began writing furiously after, as the story goes, his physician gave him a year to live. After hearing the news, Burgess decided to go on instinct and write novels full time.
Here Are The Facts: In 1959, Burgess was teaching History in a Brunei classroom and collapsed. In a review of Burgess’s biography The Real Life of Anthony Burgess, Colin Burrow suggests that, “Burgess, suspecting he had an inoperable brain tumor tried to escape from [the] hospital and was chased down the street by his doctor, Roger Bannister, the four-minute-mile-running neurologist.” Later in life Burgess wrote: "I shall die somewhere in the Mediterranean lands, with an inaccurate obituary … unmourned, soon forgotten." Burgess died on 22 November 1993 from lung cancer.
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