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Johnson, B. S. (1933 - 1973)
Novelist, poet and dramatist.
His novels were highly experimental, taking as their main
subject his own life as a novelist and the nature of the novel. He employed a
whole range of postmodernist narrative devices for questioning the boundaries
of fact and fiction. He claimed to write, not fiction, but `truth in the form
of a novel'. Travelling People (1963) uses a different viewpoint or narrative
mode for each chapter, including a film scenario, letters and typographical
effects. In Alberto Angelo (1964) the `author' breaks into the narrative to
discuss his own techniques, aims and sources. The Unfortunates (1969) is a
loose-leaf novel of 27 sections, 25 of which can be read in any order. Johnson
committed suicide at the age of 40, soon after completing See the Old Lady
Decently (1975), which is based around the death of his mother in 1971, and
incorporates family documents and photographs. His other novels are: Trawl
(1966); House Mother Normal (1971); Christie Malry's Own Double Entry (1973).
He also wrote plays, screenplays, television scripts and several collections of
poems.
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