Anthony Burgess

John Anthony Burgess Wilson (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993) was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange remains his best-known novel. Burgess produced a number of other novels, including the Enderby quartet, and Earthly Powers. He wrote librettos and screenplays, including the 1977 television mini-series Jesus of Nazareth. He worked as a literary critic for several publications, including The Observer and The Guardian, and wrote studies of classic writers, notably James Joyce. A versatile linguist, Burgess lectured in phonetics, and translated Cyrano de Bergerac, Oedipus Rex, and the opera Carmen, among others. He was nominated and shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1973. Burgess also composed over 250 musical works; he considered himself as much a composer as an author, although he achieved considerably more success in writing. Biography Early life Burgess was born on 25 February 1917 at 91 Carisbrook Street in Harpurhey, a suburb of Manchester, England, to Irish Catholic parents, Joseph and Elizabeth Wilson. He described his background as lower middle class; growing up during the