John Knowles

A Separate Peace was first published in London by Secker and Warburg in 1959. Published in New York in 1960 by Macmillan, it is his most celebrated work.

Knowles graduated from Yale University as a member of the class of 1949. At Yale, Knowles contributed stories to campus humor magazine The Yale Record and served on the board of the Yale Daily News during his sophomore, junior, and senior years, notably as editorial secretary during his senior year. He was a record-holding varsity swimmer during his sophomore year. needed|date=November 2008}}

The secondary character Finny (Phineas) is the friend of the main character Gene. Knowles has stated that he modeled Finny on David Hackett from Milton Academy, whom he met when both attended a summer session at Phillips Exeter Academy. Hackett was a friend of Robert F. Kennedy under whom he later served in the US Justice Department. A student, Phineas Sprague, lived in the same dormitory as Knowles during the summer session of 1943 and may have inspired the character's name.

Knowles was born in Fairmont, West Virginia, the son of James M. Knowles, a purchasing agent from Lowell, Massachusetts, and Mary Beatrice Shea Knowles from Concord, New Hampshire. His father was vice president of a coal company, which earned an income that afforded the family a comfortable living. Knowles attended St. Peter's High School in Fairmont, West Virginia, from 1938 to 1940, before he ccontinued at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, and graduated in 1945.

John Knowles (/n oʊ l z / ; September 16, 1926 – November 29, 2001) was an American novelist best known for A Separate Peace (1959).

John Knowles was born on August 13, 1869 in Franklin County, Maine, USA as Sr Joseph Edward Knowles.