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{{Short description|English novelist and playwright (1867–1933)}}
{{redirect|Galsworthy|the surname, and other people known by it|Galsworthy (surname)|the diplomat|John Galsworthy (diplomat)}}
{{good article}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name             = John Galsworthy
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OM}}
| image            = John galsworthy.jpg
| alt              = White male in late middle age, clean shaven, with receding hairline seen in left profile
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1867|8|14|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Kingston upon Thames]], Surrey, England
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1933|1|31|1867|8|14|df=y}}
| death_place      = [[Hampstead]], London, England
| occupation       = Novelist and playwright
| spouse           = {{marriage|[[Ada Galsworthy]]|1905}}
| relatives        = {{ubl|[[Lilian Sauter]] (sister)|[[Georg Sauter]] (brother-in-law)|[[Rudolf Helmut Sauter]] (nephew)}}
| awards           = {{awards|[[1932 Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize in Literature]]|1932}}
| signature        = Autograph Galsworthy.svg
| | module            = {{Infobox officeholder |embed=yes
| office              = President of [[PEN&nbsp;International]]
| term_start          = October 1921
| term_end            = October 1933
| successor           = [[H. G. Wells]]
}}
}}
'''John Galsworthy''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɡ|ɔː|l|z|w|ɜr|ð|i}}; 14 August 1867 – 31 January 1933) was an English novelist and playwright. He is best known for his trilogy of novels collectively called ''[[The Forsyte Saga]]'' (1906, 1920, 1921), and two later trilogies, ''A Modern Comedy'' and ''End of the Chapter''. He was awarded the [[1932 Nobel Prize in Literature]].

Born to a prosperous [[upper-middle-class]] family, Galsworthy was destined for a career as a lawyer, but found it uncongenial and turned instead to writing. He was thirty before his first book was published in 1897, and did not achieve real success until 1906, when ''[[The Man of Property]]'', the first of his novels about the Forsyte family was published. In the same year his first play, ''[[The Silver Box]]'' was staged in London. As a dramatist, he became known for plays with a social message, reflecting, among other themes, the struggle of workers against exploitation, the use of solitary confinement in prisons, the repression of women, [[jingoism]] and the politics and morality of war.

The Forsyte family series of novels and short stories collectively known as ''The Forsyte Chronicles'' is similar in many ways to Galsworthy's family, and the [[patriarch]], Old Jolyon, is modelled on Galsworthy's father. The main sequence runs from the late 19th century to the early 1930s, featuring three generations of the family. The books were popular when first published and their latter-day popularity was boosted considerably when [[BBC Television]] broadcast [[The Forsyte Saga (1967 TV series)|a 26-part adaptation]] for the author's centenary in 1967.

As well as writing plays and novels with social messages, Galsworthy campaigned continually for a wide range of causes about which he felt strongly, from [[animal welfare]] to prison reform, [[censorship]] and workers' rights. Although seen by many as a radical, he belonged to and supported no political party. His plays are seldom revived, but his novels have been frequently reissued.

==Life and career==

===Early years===

[[File:Galsworthy House, Coombe - geograph.org.uk - 3300708 (retouched).jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Parkfield (now Galsworthy House), the author's birthplace|alt=exterior of large suburban house]]

John Galsworthy was born on 14 August 1867 at his family's home, Parkfield (now called Galsworthy House)<ref>Cherry and Pevsner, p. 321</ref> on [[Kingston Hill, London|Kingston Hill]] in Surrey. He was the second child and elder son of the four children of John Galsworthy{{refn|Galsworthy senior, like his predecessors, pronounced the surname with a short "a" as in "gallery"; his son changed the pronunciation of the first syllable to "[[Gaul]]" in the belief that the name derived from Gaulish (i.e. French) ancestry.<ref>Gindin, p. 18</ref>|group=n}} (1817–1904) and his wife Blanche Bailey ''née'' Bartleet (1837–1915).<ref name=odnb>Harvey, Geoffrey [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/33314 "Galsworthy, John (1867–1933)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> John senior was a London [[solicitor]], with a flourishing practice, as well as substantial wealth inherited from his father – also John – who was from a [[Devonshire]] farming family. The latter had prospered as a [[ship chandler]] in [[Plymouth]] before moving to London and investing profitably in property.<ref>Dupré, pp. 13–14</ref> In the [[class-conscious]] mid-[[Victorian era]], Blanche Galsworthy saw herself as being from a higher [[social stratum]] than her husband's comparatively ''[[nouveau riche]]'' family, and this, together with a 20-year age gap between them, made for an uneasy relationship.{{refn|After the four children had grown up, Blanche left her husband and lived separately.<ref>Dupré, p. 18</ref> The literary critic and academic Michael Molino suggests that she was the model for highly strung and emotionally aloof women in her son's novels, such as Mrs Pendyce in ''The Country House'' (1907) and Frances Freeland in ''The Freelands'' (1915).<ref name=mm>Molino, Michael. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195169218.001.0001/acref-9780195169218-e-0179 "Galsworthy, John"], ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature'', Oxford University Press, 2006 {{subscription required}}</ref>|group=n}} The four children were considerably more ''en rapport'' with their father than with their mother. He became the model for Old Jolyon, the patriarch in ''[[The Forsyte Saga]]'';<ref>Dupré, p. 13; and Holloway, p. 5</ref> looking back, Galsworthy said in 1919, "I was so truly and deeply fond of him that I seemed not to have a fair share of love left to give to my mother".<ref>''Quoted'' in Gindin, p. 16</ref>

Galsworthy was educated by a [[governess]] until he was nine.<ref>Gindin, p. 38</ref> In 1876 he was sent to Saugeen, a small [[Preparatory school (United Kingdom)|preparatory school]] in [[Bournemouth]]. He was happy there, and his happiness increased when his younger brother, Hubert, was sent to join him. In the summer term of 1881 Galsworthy left Saugeen to go to [[Harrow School]]. He became a member of the school [[Harrow football|football]] team, and captain of his [[Harrow School#School houses|house]] [[Harrow football|XI]].<ref>Dupré, p. 26</ref> A contemporary later described him as "one of the best football players and runners there have ever been at Harrow&nbsp;... a beautiful [[dribbling#Association football|dribbler]] and full of pluck".<ref>"Mr John Galsworthy", ''The Times'', 2 February 1933, p. 15</ref>  His biographer David Holloway comments that in describing a character in a 1930 short story, Galsworthy was in fact describing his schoolboy self:

{{blockindent|No one, at school, I am sure, detected in him signs of future greatness&nbsp;...  I think that if you had asked any of his contemporaries for their opinion of him, they would have said: "A very nice fellow, without much push, the best-dressed boy in the school, with more than ordinary athletic and artistic gifts, but never likely to make a stir in the world".<ref>Holloway, p. 9</ref>|}}

After Harrow, Galsworthy went to [[New College, Oxford]] to read law, [[Matriculation|matriculating]] in October 1886.<ref>{{alox2|title=Galsworthy, John}}</ref> His biographer Catherine Dupré calls his time at Oxford "a happy, almost frivolous, interlude in a life that was lived in general with the greatest solemnity".<ref>Dupré, p. 28</ref> An Oxford contemporary recalled him as living the typical life of the well-to-do, a not very intellectual undergraduate from a leading [[Public school (United Kingdom)|public school]].<ref>Fisher, H. A. L., ''quoted'' in Dupré, p. 28</ref> He joined the [[Oxford University Dramatic Society]], and acted in other amateur productions, in one of which he fell in love with a fellow performer, [[Sybil Carlisle]] (later a professional actress); his ardent feelings were not reciprocated, which caused him much angst.<ref>Dupré, p. 35</ref> He concluded his time at Oxford with a second-class honours degree, awarded in 1889.<ref name=odnb/>

===Barrister and traveller===

As his father wished, Galsworthy entered the legal profession. He was admitted to [[Lincoln's Inn]] and was [[called to the bar]] in the Easter term of 1890. Holloway comments that as the son of a leading solicitor, Galsworthy was in an excellent position for a young [[barrister]]. His father could put a good deal of work his way and recommend him to other solicitors.<ref name=h11/>{{refn|Under the prevailing legal system in England, litigants had to engage two lawyers: first a solicitor to prepare the case and then a barrister to present it in court.<ref>Gooch, Graham, and Michael Williams. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191758256.001.0001/acref-9780191758256-e-240 "barrister"], ''A Dictionary of Law Enforcement'', Oxford University Press, 2015 {{subscription required}}</ref>|group=n}} He was nonetheless unenthusiastic about practising as a barrister. At his father's instigation he went with his brother Hubert on a trip across Canada, ostensibly to examine some family holdings there, but, according to Holloway, chiefly as a version of the [[Grand Tour]], to let the brothers see something of the world.<ref name=h11>Holloway, p. 11</ref>

[[File:Georg Sauter - Ada Galsworthy 1897.jpg|[[Ada Galsworthy]] by [[Georg Sauter]], 1897|thumb|left|upright|alt=oil painting of a young white woman in late 19th century dress]]

After returning to England in September 1891 Galsworthy had a brief, unhappy love affair. His father arranged further foreign trips to distract him from his emotional troubles and to develop his legal education by studying aspects of maritime law at close quarters with a view to specialising in it once back at home.<ref name=odnb/> In November 1892 Galsworthy and a friend from Oxford, Ted Sanderson, began a long trip that took them to the [[South Seas]] (where they hoped but failed to meet [[Robert Louis Stevenson]] in [[Samoa]]), Australasia and South Africa.<ref>Gindin, p. 62</ref>

On the voyage from [[Adelaide]] to [[Cape Town]], beginning in April 1893, Galsworthy met the ship's first mate, [[Joseph Conrad]], who had yet to begin his career as a writer. The two became lifelong friends.<ref>Gindin, pp. 64–65</ref> In 1904 Galsworthy went to Russia, where his father had financial interests, before returning to England, supposedly to resume his career as a barrister. He remained unenthusiastic about working as a lawyer: "I read in various Chambers, practised almost not at all, and disliked my profession thoroughly".<ref>Dupré, p. 36</ref> An obituarist in 1933 commented that despite Galsworthy's distaste for the legal profession, his study of the law left a permanent mark on his fiction, in which there are numerous court scenes, mostly leading to an outcome that does more harm than good.<ref name=bates>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/804930 "John Galsworthy"], ''The English Journal'', June 1933, p. 438 {{subscription required}}</ref> At this stage of his life Galsworthy was under no pressure to earn a living, having an adequate allowance from his father, but although he disapproved of an idle existence, he had no clear idea of what he wished to do.<ref>Dupré, p. 48</ref>

In 1895 Galsworthy began a love affair with the wife of his cousin Arthur Galsworthy. [[Ada Galsworthy]] had married Arthur in 1891, but they had little in common and quickly drifted apart; within a year they had agreed to live separately.<ref name=divorce>"Probate and Divorce Division", ''London Evening Standard'', 25 February 1905, p. 4</ref> Until the death of John Galsworthy senior in 1904, Ada and Galsworthy kept their relationship secret, because a scandal would have distressed the old man greatly.<ref>Dupré, p. 91</ref> Ada encouraged Galsworthy to become a writer, as did his two sisters, [[Lilian Sauter|Lilian]] (Lily) and Mabel, close friends of Ada.<ref name=g98/>

===First books; marriage===

[[File:Galsworthy-at-Wingstone.png|thumb|Galsworthy at Wingstone|alt=Clean-shaven white man in early middle age standing in front of a rural building]]

Galsworthy published his first work of fiction in 1897, when he was aged 30. It was a volume of nine short stories, ''From the Four Winds'', printed at his own expense. The book received many favourable reviews, but sales were modest.<ref name=Dupré60>Dupré, p. 60</ref> Nevertheless, the young publisher [[Gerald Duckworth]] was willing to take a chance on Galsworthy's second book, a novel, ''Jocelyn'', which he published in 1898.<ref>Dupré, p. 62</ref> The author later dismissed his first two books as prentice works – he called ''From the Four Winds'' "that dreadful little book"<ref name=Dupré60/> – and over the next few years he honed his skills.<ref>Dupré, p. 61</ref> He later said that he was writing fiction for five years before he mastered even the basic techniques.<ref name=times>Obituary, ''The Times'', 1 February 1933, p. 15</ref> He studied the works of [[Ivan Turgenev|Turgenev]] and [[Guy de Maupassant|Maupassant]], learning from their literary craftsmanship.<ref name=g98/>

While his father remained alive Galsworthy wrote under a pseudonym, John Sinjon, in whose name his first four books were published.<ref name=g98>Gindin, p. 98</ref> His 1901 collection of short stories, ''A Man of Devon'', included "The Salvation of Swithin Forsyte", the first episode in what he later developed into a three-generation family saga, known collectively as ''The Forsyte Chronicles''. Two years later he began writing ''[[The Forsyte Saga#The Man of Property (1906)|The Man of Property]]'', the first novel in the sequence.<ref name=odnb/>

In 1904 Galsworthy's father died, and there was no longer any cause for secrecy about his son's relationship with Ada. After the funeral the couple went to stay at Wingstone, a farmhouse in the village of [[Manaton]] on the edge of [[Dartmoor]], which he had come across when on a walking tour. It was the first of many visits they made there, and four years later Galsworthy took a long lease of part of the building, which was the couple's second home until 1923.<ref name=lg>Cooper, pp. 322–324</ref> Arthur Galsworthy sued for divorce in February 1905;<ref name=divorce/> the divorce was finalised on 13 September of that year and Ada married John Galsworthy ten days later.{{refn|In the English divorce courts of the time there was an interval between the provisional judgement  granting a divorce (the [[decree nisi]]) and the formal dissolution of the marriage (the [[decree absolute]]).<ref>[https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192897497.001.0001/acref-9780192897497-e-1046 "decree absolute"], ''A Dictionary of Law'', Oxford University Press, 2022 {{subscription required}}</ref>|group=n}} The marriage, which was childless, lasted until his death. Ada was a key figure in the life of her second husband, and his biographers have attributed to her an important influence on his development as a novelist and playwright.<ref>Dupré, p. 50; Holloway, p. 15; and Gindin, p. 85</ref><ref>Fisher, John. "The Ada Galsworthy Saga", ''The Times'', 18 September 1976, p. 6</ref>

===Growing fame===

''The Island Pharisees'' (1904), addressing the effects of poverty and the constraints of convention − themes with which Galsworthy became much associated − received considerable praise,<ref name=ocel>Drabble (1985), p. 376</ref> but it was a further two years until he had his first outstanding successes. His biographer V. H. Marrot calls 1906 Galsworthy's ''[[annus mirabilis]]''.<ref>Marrot, p. 162</ref> In March his novel ''The Man of Property'' was published by [[Heinemann (publisher)|William Heinemann]], and in December [[Harley Granville-Barker]] directed ''[[The Silver Box]]'' at the [[Royal Court Theatre]] in London.<ref>Holloway, p. 89</ref>

The novel was reviewed enthusiastically. ''[[The Times]]'' said, "A novel of this character is new; it shows thought and determination, and an unflagging alertness, with its companion, ease, that make Mr Galsworthy's career a matter of some importance to English fiction",<ref>"The Times List of New Books and New Editions", ''The Times'' 9 May 1906, p. 8</ref> ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' said that Galsworthy had already published some good work, but "nothing quite so strong as this carefully-imagined and well-elaborated chapter in the history of smug respectability",<ref>"The Man of Property", ''The Daily Telegraph'', 4 April 1906, p. 12</ref> and the ''[[Evening Standard]]'' commented that the characters are "undeniably arresting. They always stand out of the page, clear and impressive, as true flesh and blood."<ref>"The Newest Books", ''Evening Standard'', 3 April 1906, p. 5</ref> Other comments included "most incisive and cunningly wrought", "written with a finish which is both rare and delightful" and "a very human story of undoubted literary value".<ref name=hein>''Quoted'' in "The Man of Property", ''The Times'', 25 May 1906, p. 8</ref> The first impression sold out within weeks and a reprint was quickly arranged by Heinemann, who remained Galsworthy's publisher for the rest of the author's career.<ref name=hein/><ref>Holloway, p. 28</ref> There were there four more reprints over the next five years, including a cheap "Sixpenny Edition".<ref>Fréchet, p. 1</ref>

At this stage, Galsworthy had only tentative thoughts of expanding the novel into the family saga and social panorama of ''The Forsyte Chronicles''.<ref>Fréchet, p. 63</ref> It was another twelve years before he wrote any more about the Forsytes.<ref>Holloway, p. 99</ref> His novels in the interim included ''Fraternity'' (1909), a critique of the artificial veneer of urban life, and ''The Dark Flower'' (1913), depicting the disruptive, but sometimes creative, effects of love.<ref name=ocel/> Alongside his work as a novelist and playwright, Galsworthy was a vigorous campaigner for causes in which he believed. In 1912 and 1913 he carried on an effective campaign in the cause of humane slaughtering of animals killed for food.<ref name=times/>

[[File:Censorship-committee.png|thumb|upright=.8|Fellow campaigners against censorship: from top left, clockwise: [[J. M. Barrie]]; [[Gilbert Murray]]; [[William Archer (critic)|William Archer]]; [[Harley Granville-Barker]]|alt=head and shoulders photographs of four middle-aged white men, the first three moustached; the fourth clean-shaven]]

''The Silver Box'' was the first of 28 plays Galsworthy wrote for the professional stage.<ref name=mm/> Despite the success of ''The Man of Property'' earlier in the year, it was as a dramatist that he was first widely known. In 1916 [[Sheila Kaye-Smith]] wrote, "Galsworthy takes his place in modern literature chiefly by virtue of his plays. Criticism may to a certain extent damage him as a novelist, but the most searching critics cannot leave him anything less than a great playwright".<ref>Kaye-Smith, p. 17</ref> Although throughout his career Galsworthy supported no political party, ''The Silver Box'' was seen as putting him alongside [[George Bernard Shaw|Bernard Shaw]] and Granville-Barker as a playwright with a strong social message. The play hinged on unequal treatment before the law, depending on social class.<ref name=mm/> It was well and widely reviewed, although it did only modestly at the box-office. Between 1906 and the outbreak of the [[First World War]] in 1914, Galsworthy had nine plays produced and published five novels. With the help of [[J. M. Barrie]] and [[Gilbert Murray]] he set up a committee to press for reform of the British laws imposing censorship on theatrical productions. They enlisted the strong backing of [[William Archer (critic)|William Archer]] and Granville-Barker; [[W. S. Gilbert]], [[Arthur Wing Pinero|Arthur Pinero]] and others lent their support.<ref>Dupré, p. 148</ref>

Not all the early plays had overt political or polemical themes: ''Joy'' (1907) is a study of a young woman's attempts to cope with the inadequacies of her parents,<ref>"Strife", ''The Bystander'', 2 October 1907, p. 24</ref> and ''The Fugitive'' (1913) depicts a marriage collapsing from the incompatibility of the couple. But ''[[Strife (play)|Strife]]'' (1909) depicts the struggle of workers in a [[Mining in Cornwall and Devon|Cornish tin mine]] against exploitation by the employers;<ref name=g119/> ''[[Justice (play)|Justice]]'' (1910) attacks the use of solitary confinement in prisons;<ref name=g119>Gindin, p. 119</ref> the theme of ''[[The Eldest Son]]'' (1912) is the repression of women both in the family and society;<ref name=g119/> ''The Mob'' (1914) focuses on [[jingoism]] and the politics and morality of war.<ref>Gindin, p. 338</ref> None of these plays were box-office successes, but Galsworthy had the benefit of producers—Granville-Barker and [[Charles Frohman]] in London and [[Annie Horniman]] in Manchester—who were willing to present non-commercial plays in which they believed, as well as more profitable productions.<ref>Gindin, pp. 119, 201 and 210</ref>

===First World War===

When the First World War began in August 1914, Galsworthy had conflicting views.<ref name=odnb/> He was appalled that civilised countries should be at war with each other, but thought it right to defend Belgium against German invasion.<ref>Gindin, p. 349</ref> His family was directly affected by the war: his sister Lily was married to a German, the painter [[Georg Sauter]], who was interned as an enemy alien and later expelled.<ref>Gindin, p. 374</ref> Galsworthy was too old to serve in the army and felt increasingly that he was not contributing enough to the war effort. He donated his substantial American royalties to war charities, but in addition he felt impelled to offer his services in a personal capacity. He trained as a masseur and went to France as a volunteer, giving therapy to injured soldiers at the Hôpital Bénévole in Martouret, near [[Valence, Drôme|Valence]].<ref>Dupré, pp. 224–225</ref> His wife went with him, helping with the hospital's laundry. They returned to England in 1917.<ref>Dupré, p. 227</ref>

Revisiting the theme of the Forsyte family in 1917, Galsworthy wrote a short story, "Indian Summer of a Forsyte" depicting the serene final days of Old Jolyon, the head of the family in ''The Man of Property''. It was published in the 1918 collection ''Five Tales'', which also contained "A Stoic", later to be successfully adapted for the stage as ''Old English''.<ref>Gindin, pp. 406–407</ref>

Galsworthy resumed much of his pre-war lifestyle, combining literary output, socialising, and promoting the causes in which he believed. He supported prison reform, women's rights, a minimum wage and animal welfare, and opposed censorship, exploitation of workers, [[blood sports]] and aerial warfare.<ref name=m215/>{{refn|Galsworthy compiled a list of causes about which he had campaigned: abolition of the censorship of plays; aeroplanes in war; caging of wild birds; "Cecil houses" [social housing]; children on the stage; dental experiments on dogs; divorce law reform; docking of horses' tails; labour unrest – labour exchanges; performing animals; pigeon shooting; plumage bill; ponies in mines; prison reform (closed cell confinement); slaughterhouse reform; slum clearance; sweated industries − minimum wage; three year average income tax; vivisection of dogs; woman's suffrage; worn-out horse traffic; zoos.<ref name=m215>Marrot, pp. 215–216</ref>|group=n}} He had included essays on some of these topics in his 1916 collection ''A Sheaf''.<ref>Galsworthy (1916), Contents page: "On the treatment of animals. Concerning laws. On prisons and punishment. On the position of women. On social unrest."</ref> Towards the end of 1917 he was offered a [[knight bachelor|knighthood]], which he declined, on the grounds that "no artist of Letters ought to dally with titles".<ref name=d232>Dupré, pp. 232–233</ref> Officials mistakenly left his name in the published 1918 [[New Year Honours]] list, and at his insistence a correction was issued.<ref name=d232/>

===Postwar===

In 1919 the [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]] invited Galsworthy to give an address at the celebrations marking the centenary of [[James Russell Lowell]]. In his speech, at the [[Ritz-Carlton Hotel]], Galsworthy praised Lowell for his contribution to making English the universal language—"that most superb instrument for the making of word-music, for the telling of the truth, and the expression of the imagination."<ref>"The Universal Language", ''St Louis Globe-Democrat'', 2 March 1919, p. 30</ref>

[[File:The-Skin-Game-1920.png|thumb|left|upright=0.8|''[[The Skin Game (play)|The Skin Game]]'', 1920: violence erupts. [[Edmund Gwenn]], centre, with George Eldon left, and Frederick Cooper|alt=three men in an indoor setting, one attempting to throttle another]]

At the [[St Martin's Theatre]], London, in 1920 Galsworthy had his first big box-office success with ''[[The Skin Game (play)|The Skin Game]]'', depicting the clash between old and new money, attempted blackmail, and the effect of unrestrained capitalism on the lives of ordinary people. Reviews were generally favourable, although ''The Evening Standard'' said that the author's dramatic genius lent undeserved credibility to an essentially unrealistic plot, and ''[[The Observer]]'' commented that instead of seeing the good in both sides of an argument as he usually did, Galsworthy here depicted the bad in both.<ref>"The Skin Game", ''The Evening Standard'', 22 April 1920, p. 12; and "The Skin Game", ''The Observer'', 25 April 1920, p. 11.</ref> Archer wrote that the play contained some of the most thrilling passages in modern drama, and showed Galsworthy to be a born dramatist.<ref>Archer, William. "The Stage of the Day", ''The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News'', 1 May 1920, p. 312</ref> Another reviewer called it "unrivalled among present productions&nbsp;... the finest play London has seen for years."<ref>"Galsworthy's Masterpiece", ''The Sunday Pictorial'', 2 May 1920, p. 11.</ref> The success of the play quickly led to a [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] production<ref>[https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/the-skin-game-8336#OpeningNightCast "The Skin Game"], Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 4 April 2023</ref> and [[The Skin Game (1921 film)|a film version]] featuring the [[West End theatre|West End]] cast, headed by [[Edmund Gwenn]].<ref>"Famous Play Filmed", ''Daily News'', 15 January 1921, p. 2.</ref>

By this time Galsworthy had returned to the Forsytes; he wrote a second novel about the family, ''In Chancery'', published in October 1920. Within a year he completed another Forsyte short story (or "interlude"), called "Awakening", and a third novel, ''To Let'', published in September 1921.<ref>Holloway, p. 90</ref> A month later the [[PEN International|International PEN Club]] (standing for "Poets, Essayists, Novelists") was founded in London, with Galsworthy as its president, a position he held for the rest of his life.<ref name=odnb/> In May 1922, the three Forsyte novels were issued in a single volume as ''The Forsyte Saga'', and sold prodigiously—more than two million copies within months of publication, according to one account, although Galsworthy's major biographers do not give a figure.<ref name=mm/><ref>Gindin, p. 449; and Dupré, p. 262.</ref>

Having concluded ''The Forsyte Saga'', Galsworthy turned to the next generation of the family. The first instalment of a second trilogy—''The White Monkey''—was published in October 1924, a few days after the premiere of Galsworthy's drama, ''Old English''. The starring role in the play, Sylvanus Heythorpe, was played in London by [[Norman McKinnel]] and in New York by [[George Arliss]]. The latter starred in [[Old English (film)|a film adaptation]] in 1930.<ref>"Plays of the Moment", ''The Sketch'', 12 November 1924, p. 346; [https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/old-english-9365#OpeningNightCast "Old English"], Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 4 April 2023; and [https://web.archive.org/web/20160828041152/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b1efe43 "Old English (1930)"], British Film Institute. Retrieved 4 April 2023</ref> The day before the play opened in London, Lily Sauter died. The Galsworthys took her son [[Rudolf Helmut Sauter|Rudolf]] and his wife, Viola, with them for a prolonged winter holiday in Italy and North Africa.<ref>Gindin, p. 493; and Holloway, p. 99</ref>

===Later years===

[[File:Bury House.JPG|thumb|upright=1.5|Bury House|alt= Exterior of Tudor-style country house]]

Galsworthy's lease of Wingstone ended in 1923, to his regret and his wife's relief (she found the Devon weather bad for her [[bronchitis]]).<ref>Gindin pp. 218 and 527</ref> They were without a country home for three years until in September 1926 they discovered and bought Bury House in [[Bury, West Sussex]], a village off the [[A29 road|A29]], four miles north of [[Arundel]]. The house has extensive views across farmland to the [[South Downs]], where Galsworthy used to ride.<ref>Eagle and Carnell, p. 42</ref> At Bury, the Galsworthys entertained his friends and colleagues, including [[Arnold Bennett]] and [[Hugh Walpole]]; the latter was much taken with the house: "really lovely, with pearl-grey stone fronting lawns that run straight to the open fields&nbsp;... Everything artistic&nbsp;... Very like a special edition of one of John's own books".<ref name=hd306>Hart-Davis, p. 306</ref> Galsworthy and Ada divided their time between Bury and their London home in [[Hampstead]]; Rudolf and Viola Sauter moved from London and lived at Bury House the year round.<ref>Gindin, pp. 528–529</ref>

Between 1926 and 1928 Galsworthy worked on the second Forsyte trilogy. ''The Silver Spoon'' was published in 1926 and ''Swan Song'' in 1928. He interspersed the novels with two short "interludes": ''A Silent Wooing'' (1926) and ''Passers By'' (1927). They were published in a single volume as ''A Modern Comedy'' in 1929. Sales were disappointing—fewer than those of ''The Forsyte Saga'' as a single volume seven years earlier.<ref>Gindin, p. 522</ref>

In 1929 Galsworthy was offered the [[Order of Merit]]. Although it is a more prestigious honour than a knighthood, it confers no title, and Galsworthy accepted it, receiving the award along with the [[Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom|Poet Laureate]], [[Robert Bridges]].<ref>"Birthday Honours", ''The Times'', 3 June 1929, p. 17</ref> Over the following three years he received honorary degrees from five universities, including [[University of Oxford|Oxford]], where he delivered the 1931 [[Romanes Lecture]] taking as his subject "Shakespeare and Spiritual Life".<ref>Holloway, pp. 99–100; and [https://www.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/The-University-Year/romanes-lecture "Romanes Lecture"], University of Oxford. Retrieved 7 April 2023</ref>

[[File:Photo Portrait of the British writer John Galsworthy correcting a manuscript 1930 - Touring Club Italiano 11 5336.jpg|thumb|1930 portrait photo of John Galsworthy]]
Galsworthy found himself drawn back to the Forsyte family, and in 1930 he published ''On Forsyte 'Change'', a collection of short stories about them, dealing with events before and soon after those recorded in the ''Saga''. In his foreword he wrote, "it is hard to part suddenly and finally from those with whom one has lived so long; and&nbsp;... these footnotes do really, I think, help to fill in and round out the chronicles of the Forsyte family".<ref>Galsworthy (1930), Foreword</ref> In 1931 he began what developed into a third and last trilogy, with ''Maid in Waiting'', followed by ''Flowering Wilderness'' (1932) and the posthumously published ''Over the River'' (1933). This final trilogy, published together as ''End of the Chapter'' in 1935, moves the focus towards the Charwell family, related by marriage to the Forsytes. It sold well, although not matching the commercial or critical success of the ''Saga''.<ref>Fréchet, p. 2; and Gindin, p. 552.</ref>

Galsworthy's health declined as he was working on ''Over the River'', and, hitherto a fluent writer, he found progress slow and effortful. In late 1932 he was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]], only the second English author to receive the award since its inception in 1901.{{refn|The first English author to receive the prize was [[Rudyard Kipling]], in 1907. Between the two awards, the prize had gone to three non-English authors who wrote in English: [[William Butler Yeats|W. B. Yeats]] (1923), [[George Bernard Shaw|Bernard Shaw]] (1925), and [[Sinclair Lewis]] (1930); [[Rabindranath Tagore]] (1913) also sometimes wrote in English.|group=n}} The citation for Galsworthy's award was "for his distinguished art of narration which takes its highest form in ''The Forsyte Saga''".<ref name="nobel2">{{Cite web |title=All Nobel Prizes in Literature |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/all-nobel-prizes-in-literature/1939-1930/ |access-date=2024-11-22 |website=[[The Nobel Prize]] |language=en-US}}</ref> He was by then too ill to go to Stockholm for the presentation, and died at his London home on 31 January 1933, aged 65, from a combination of causes including [[cerebral thrombosis]], [[arterial sclerosis]] and a possible [[brain tumour]].<ref name=g562>Gindin, pp. 562–563</ref>

After a private funeral and cremation, a memorial service was held at [[Westminster Abbey]], attended by members of the [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|Cabinet]] including the prime minister, [[Ramsay MacDonald]], European ambassadors, fellow authors including Sir James Barrie,  [[Laurence Binyon]], [[Walter de la Mare]] and Sir Arthur Pinero, and representatives of numerous charities that Galsworthy had supported.<ref>"Deaths", ''The Times'', 10 February 1933, p. 15</ref> In accordance with his will, his ashes were scattered from an aeroplane over the South Downs.<ref name=g562/>

==Works==

Galsworthy wrote 20 novels; 28 completed plays; five collections of short stories; three volumes of poetry; eleven volumes of essays and sketches; and occasional stories and pamphlets, newspaper articles, unpublished essays and sketches.<ref name=list>Gindin, pp. 609–611</ref> He wrote in longhand, revised extensively, and his wife—the only secretary he ever had—typed his completed [[manuscript]]s.<ref>Hart-Davis, p. 294; and Gindin, p. 8.</ref>

===Novels===

[[File:Galsworthy-spines.jpg|thumb|left|upright|alt=three book spines, green binding with yellow labels, reading "The Forsyte Saga, Vol 1, 2 and 3"|261x261px|Galsworthy's ''The Forsyte Saga'']]

Of Galsworthy's 20 novels, nine are about the Forsytes, the last three tangentially so, and the other eleven are all one-off stories.<ref name=list/> In a 1982 study, Alec Fréchet analyses a comment that Galsworthy made in looking back at his works in the mid-1920s, that the novels reflected the battle between the emotional and critical sides of his nature:

{{Blockquote|text=My early work was certainly more emotional than critical. But from 1901 came nine years when the critical was, in the main, holding sway. From 1910 to 1918 the emotional again struggled for the upper hand; and from that time on there seems to have been something of a "dead heat".<ref name=periods>Fréchet, pp. 57–58.</ref>|source=}}

From this, Fréchet divides the novels into five periods: the first consisting of the two early ones, ''Jocelyn'' (1898) and ''Villa Rubein'' (1900). Between 1901 and 1909 there were four novels characterised as "critical"—''The Island Pharisees'' (1904), ''The Man of Property'' (1906), ''The Country House'' (1907)  and ''Fraternity'' (1909). These books reflect the author's disparaging view of various aspects of [[English society|British society]], such as hypocrisy, selfishness and exploitation of the poor and women of all classes.<ref name="periods" /> His censure was seen in conservative circles as scandalous, and the author was regarded by some as a traitor to his own class.<ref>Fréchet, p. 66.</ref> He further offended conservatives by his attacks on [[imperialism]]; in ''The Island Pharisees'' he wrote, "Why should we, a small portion of the world's population, assume that our standards are the proper ones for every kind of race?"<ref>Fréchet, p. 180.</ref>

The next period, from 1910 to 1919, produced six novels categorised as "lyrical" or "war-time": ''The Patrician'' (1911), ''The Dark Flower'' (1913), ''The Freelands'' (1915), ''Beyond'' (1917), ''The Burning Spear'' (1919) and ''Saint's Progress'' (1919). After these Fréchet lists the 1920–1928 Forsyte novels as a category of their own: ''In Chancery'' (1920), ''To Let'' (1921), ''The White Monkey'' (1924), ''The Silver Spoon'' (1926) and ''Swan Song'' (1928). The last group in Fréchet's summary of Galsworthy's classifications consists of the final trilogy: ''Maid in Waiting'' (1931), ''Flowering Wilderness'' (1932) and ''Over the River'' (completed in 1932).<ref name=periods/>

Fréchet comments that the recurring themes of Galsworthy's novels are, in order of importance: beauty, love and suffering, divorce, honour, art and the law. "Beauty comes first, because in every case it coincides with love: the beloved woman is always very beautiful; but not only women: the natural setting for the action is also unfailingly lovely. The beauty of a woman and the beauty of nature are of the same kind."<ref>Fréchet, p. 109.</ref> Money and family are important features, but generally as the background to, rather than the crux of, the plot.<ref>Fréchet, pp. 115 and 120–121.</ref>

===Plays===

{{quote box|width=200px|bgcolor=#E0E6F8|align=right|quote=

''' Galsworthy's plays '''

• ''The Silver Box'', 1906  <br>•  ''Joy'', 1907  <br>•  ''Strife'', 1909 <br>•  ''Justice'', 1910 <br> •  ''The Little Dream'', 1911  <br>•  ''The Pigeon'', 1912  <br>•  ''The Eldest Son'', 1912 <br>•  ''The Fugitive'', 1913 <br> •  ''The Mob'', 1914 <br>•  ''A Bit o' Love'', 1915 <br> •  ''The Foundations'', 1916  <br>•  [[The Skin Game (play)|''The Skin Game'']], 1920 <br> •  ''Six Short Plays'', 1921 {{refn|The six plays are ''[[The First and the Last (play)|The First and the Last]]'',  ''The Little Man'',  ''Hall-Marked'', ''Defeat'', ''The Sun'' and ''Punch and Go''.<ref name=list/>|group=n}} <br> •   ''A Family Man'', 1921  <br>•  [[Loyalties (play)|''Loyalties'']], 1922  <br>•  ''Windows'', 1922 <br> •  ''The Forest '', 1924 <br>• ''Old English'', 1924 <br> •  ''The Show'', 1925 <br> •  [[Escape (play)|''Escape'']], 1926 <br> •  ''The Silver Spoon'', 1926 <br>•  ''Exiled'', 1929 <br> •  ''The Roof'', 1929.<ref name=who/>

|salign = left}}

Like his contemporary [[W. Somerset Maugham|Somerset Maugham]], Galsworthy was known more in his early career for his plays than for his novels. Unlike Maugham, who abandoned the theatre thirty years before the end of his writing career,<ref>Raphael, p. 64.</ref> Galsworthy continued writing plays, from ''The Silver Box'' in 1906 to ''The Roof'' in 1929.<ref>Holloway, pp. 98–100.</ref> As with Maugham, the plays are rarely revived, although the Forsyte Saga and some other novels have been regularly reissued.<ref name=mm/><ref>Morgan, p. 669.</ref>

As a playwright, Galsworthy presented social issues of the time in the manner of the [[modernism|modernist]] school of [[Henrik Ibsen]]. Encouraged by Granville-Barker, Galsworthy wrote about conflicts and inequities within British society.<ref name=mm/> Shaw did the same, but the styles of the two dramatists differed noticeably. ''The Times'' commented that Galsworthy was a dramatist of power with more feeling than Shaw, if less wit, "and as keen a sense of social anomalies, if less readiness to offer theories by which they might be remedied."<ref name=times/> Shaw favoured a forthright presentation of his themes; Galsworthy and Granville-Barker preferred a more subtle, naturalistic approach, which, Shaw said, "makes me blush for the comparative blatancy of my own plays".<ref>Holroyd, p. 338.</ref> Galsworthy seldom took sides; he was known for seeing both sides of most arguments and rarely giving any characters a monopoly of virtue or wisdom.<ref>"The Skin Game", ''The Observer'', 25 April 1920, p. 11; and Gindin, pp. 189, 199 and 252.</ref> The literary critic and academic Michael Molino summarises Galsworthy's technique:

[[File:Galsworthy-Old-English-1924.png|thumb|left|upright=1.1|''Old English'', 1924: Ventnor ([[Laurence Hanray]]) serves Heythorp ([[Norman McKinnel]]) his last dinner|alt=Two white, clean-shaven men: one is a butler, standing, pouring wine for the other, seated]]

{{blockindent|a dramatic situation presents the central thesis of the play; the action is then propelled through realistic dialogue and detail, and the conclusion poses a question to consider rather than presenting a certain resolution to the play's problem.<ref name=mm/>|}}

Not all Galsworthy's plays are of this kind. Two were his adaptations of earlier short stories:  ''The First and the Last'' (1921) and ''Old English'' (1924), which dealt respectively with murder and suicide—the latter by the unconventional method of overeating: the play culminates in the death of the central character, who, faced with imminent ruin and disgrace, defies his doctor's orders and deliberately eats a fatally rich and elaborate dinner, with many courses and as many wines.<ref>Gindin, pp. 406, 493 and 473.</ref> These were exceptions: normally Galsworthy conceived his plots and characters as suitable either for drama or for fiction, but not both.<ref>Gindin, p. 213.</ref>

Some critics felt that Galsworthy was apt to show the underdog in a sympathetic light even when the character deserved little sympathy. ''Windows'' (1923), centring on a vicious young woman, led the reviewer in ''The Times'' to quote [[Samuel Johnson]]: "Sir, do not accustom your mind to confound virtue and vice."<ref>"Windows", ''The Times'', 26 April 1923, p. 12.</ref>

===Other writing===

Galsworthy was an accomplished writer of short stories; the most popular collection is ''Five Tales'' (1918). Opinions vary about his poetry. In ''[[The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'' (2004), Geoffrey Harvey considers that Galsworthy's poems rarely transcend the conventional.<ref name=odnb/> Gilbert Murray thought that the ''Collected Poems'', posthumously published, showed that Galsworthy could have been a considerable poet if he had not already found his milieu in prose.<ref>Murray, Gilbert. [https://doi.org/10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.013.33314 "Galsworthy, John (1867–1933)"], ''Dictionary of National Biography'', Macmillan, 1949. {{ODNBsub}}</ref>

Harvey judges Galsworthy's essays and published lectures to be "thoughtful but unremarkable".<ref name=odnb/>

==Honours==

In addition to the Order of Merit and the Nobel Prize, Galsworthy received honorary degrees from the universities of [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]], [[University of Dublin|Dublin]], [[University of Manchester|Manchester]], [[University of Oxford|Oxford]], [[Princeton University|Princeton]], [[University of Sheffield|Sheffield]] and [[University of St Andrews|St Andrews]], and was an honorary fellow of New College, Oxford.<ref name=who>[https://doi.org/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U209822 "Galsworthy, John"], ''Who's Who'', Oxford University Press 2007. Retrieved 9 April 2023 {{subscription required}}</ref>

==Reputation==
[[File:John Galsworthy 2.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=white man, clean-shaven, hatless, balding, in late middle age looking at camera|Galsworthy in later years]]
Galsworthy was known for his generosity. He insisted on living on only half his income, and gave the other half away in such causes as providing affordable homes for villagers in Manaton and Bury.<ref>Holloway, p. 76; and Gindin, p. 528.</ref> Walpole described him as "gentle, honest and just" and "absolutely good-hearted&nbsp;... a dear",<ref>Hart-Davis, pp. 306–307.</ref> although somewhat over-serious: "A dinner with Galsworthy, [[E. V. Lucas|Lucas]], and Granville-Barker was quite fun although J. G. never sees a joke".<ref>Hart-Davis, p. 165.</ref> [[P. G. Wodehouse]] confirmed this reputation for seriousness; he wrote that Galsworthy abominated desultory conversation, and when he and his wife were entertaining dinner guests he would announce, as they sat down, a topic that would be discussed during the meal, such as "To what extent is genius influenced by the educational standards of parents?"<ref>Wodehouse and Bolton, p. 180.</ref>{{refn|Galsworthy nonetheless was consistently enthusiastic about Wodehouse's comic novels, one of his few tastes that Ada did not share.<ref>Gindin, p. 405.</ref>|group=n}}

The literary [[Literary modernism|modernists]] of his day deplored Galsworthy's books, and those of his contemporaries [[H. G. Wells]] and Arnold Bennett.<ref>Howarth, p. 5; Drabble (1974) p. 289; and Steele, p. 21.</ref> [[Virginia Woolf]] called them "the Edwardians" and accused them of presiding over an "age when character disappeared or was mysteriously engulfed".<ref>Bishop, p. 137.</ref> In her view, according to Molino, the three "ignored the complex internal life of characters" and portrayed "an orderly existence populated with characters typical of their social station, but little else."<ref name=mm/> Of the three it was Galsworthy whom Woolf most disliked. When his death was announced she wrote of her thankfulness that "that stuffed shirt" had died.<ref>Holloway, p. 1.</ref> In 1927 [[D. H. Lawrence]], although, in Fréchet's phrase, "undaunted by his lack of knowledge of the subject", published an attack on Galsworthy. "The story is feeble, the characters have no blood and bones, the emotions are faked, faked, faked. It is one great fake."<ref>''Quoted'' in Fréchet, p. 4.</ref>

The publisher [[Rupert Hart-Davis]] thought that Galsworthy's touch grew less sure with each succeeding generation of the Forsytes: in the ''Saga'' the author could draw on his contemporaries and immediate forebears as models: the Forsytes are an upper-middle-class family like Galsworthy's own, two generations removed from their yeomen roots in the [[West Country]]; Ada's first marriage provided a basis for Irene and Soames Forsyte.<ref name=odnb/> But in Hart-Davis's view, in the later novels Galsworthy had to rely on his creative imagination, "which by itself wasn't powerful enough to mask his ignorance of his juniors: perhaps if he'd had children the later books would have rung truer."<ref>Lyttelton and Hart-Davis, pp. 98–99.</ref>

In his 1979 study ''John Galsworthy: l'homme, le romancier, le critique social'', Fréchet wrote that Galsworthy's reputation is not the same in Britain as it is elsewhere: "for the English, Galsworthy represents the past, because they are so conscious of all that is anachronistic in the world he describes, and of how fast it is all changing." Fréchet suggests that readers from other countries "are much better at perceiving what remains true in Galsworthy's depiction of England, because they realise how slowly it has changed."<ref>Fréchet, p. 5.</ref>

Marking the centenary of Galsworthy's birth, the [[BBC]] made a television adaptation of the first two trilogies, screened in 1967 under the title ''The Forsyte Saga''. It was at the time the most expensive television production ever made, with 26 episodes of 50 minutes each. It attracted large audiences in Britain and forty other countries, and led to a surge in the sale of Galsworthy's novels, which sold better than at any stage in his lifetime; [[Penguin Books]] sold more than 100,000 copies of ''The Man of Property'' in Britain in 1967 and more than 120,000 the following year.<ref>Fréchet, p. 206.</ref> New translations brought the author a new international public.<ref>Fréchet, p. 6.</ref>

== List of Works ==

=== The Forsyte Chronicles ===

# ''The Salvation of a Forsyte (The Salvation of Swithin Forsyte)'' (1900)
# ''On Forsyte 'Change'' (1930) (re-published 1986 as "Uncollected Forsyte")
# ''Danaë'' (1905–06) in ''Forsytes, Pendyces, and Others'' (1935)
# ''The Man of Property'' (1906) – first book of ''[[The Forsyte Saga]]'' (1922)
# ''The Country House'' (1907)
# "Indian Summer of a Forsyte" (1918) – first interlude of ''The Forsyte Saga'' in Five Tales (1918)
# ''In Chancery'' (1920) – second book of ''The Forsyte Saga''
# "Awakening" (1920) – second interlude of ''The Forsyte Saga''
# ''To Let'' (1921) – third book of ''The Forsyte Saga''
# ''The White Monkey'' (1924) – first book of ''A Modern Comedy'' (1929)
# ''The Silver Spoon'' (1926) – second book of ''A Modern Comedy''
# "A Silent Wooing" (1927) – first Interlude of ''A Modern Comedy''
# "Passers-By" (1927) – second Interlude of ''A Modern Comedy''
# ''Swan Song'' (1928) – third book of ''A Modern Comedy''
# ''Maid in Waiting'' (1931) – first book of ''End of the Chapter'' (1934)
# ''Flowering Wilderness'' (1932) – second book of ''End of the Chapter''
# ''One More River'' (originally ''Over the River'') (1933) – third book of ''End of the Chapter''

=== Novels ===

* ''Jocelyn'', 1898 (as John Sinjohn)
* ''Villa Rubein'', 1900 (as John Sinjohn)
* ''The Island Pharisees'', 1904
* ''Fraternity'', 1909
* ''A Motley'', 1910
* ''The Dark Flower'', 1913
* ''The Freelands'', 1915
* ''A Sheaf'', 1916
* ''Beyond'', 1917
* ''Saint's Progress'', 1919
* ''Captures'', 1923
* ''The Burning Spear'', 2002

=== Short Story Collections ===

* ''From the Four Winds'', 1897 (as John Sinjohn)
* ''A Man of Devon'', 1901 (as John Sinjohn)
* ''Villa Rubein and Other Stories'', 1909
* ''Five Tales'', 1918 (Contents: "The First and Last", "A Stoic", "[[The Apple Tree (story)|The Apple Tree]]", "The Juryman", and "Indian Summer of a Forsyte" (the first interlude of ''[[The Forsyte Saga]]'')
* ''Tatterdemalion'', 1920
* ''Captures'', 1923
* ''Caravan: The Assembled Tales of John Galsworthy'', New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1925
* ''Soames and the Flag'', 1930
* ''Forsytes, Pendyces and Others'', 1935
* " Quality" , 1912

=== Plays ===

* ''[[The Silver Box]]'', 1906
* ''[[Strife (play)|Strife]]'', 1909
* ''Joy'', 1909
* ''[[Justice (play)|Justice]]'', 1910
* ''The Little Dream'', 1911
* ''[[The Patrician (novel)|The Patrician]]'', 1911
* ''The Pigeon'', 1912
* ''[[The Eldest Son]]'', 1912
* ''The Fugitive'', 1913
* ''The Mob'', 1914
* ''The Little Man'', 1915
* ''A Bit o' Love'', 1915
* ''The Foundations'', 1917
* ''[[The First and the Last (play)|The First and the Last]]'', 1919
* ''[[The Skin Game (play)|The Skin Game]]'', 1920
* ''A Family Man'', 1922
* ''[[Loyalties (play)|Loyalties]]'', 1922
* ''Windows'', 1922
* ''Old English'', 1923
* ''[[Escape (1927 play)|Escape]]'', 1926
* ''Punch and Go'', 1935

=== Essays ===

* Quality, 1912,
* ''The Inn of Tranquility'', 1912,
* ''Addresses in America'', 1912
* ''Two Essays on Conrad'', 1930

=== Collected Works ===

* ''The Manaton Edition'', 1923–26 (30 vols.)
* ''The Grove Edition'', 1927–34 (27 Vols.)

=== Other works ===

* ''A Commentary'', 1908
* ''A Justification for the Censorship of Plays'', 1909
* ''The Japanese Quince'', 1910
* ''The Spirit of Punishment'', 1910
* ''Horses in Mines'', 1910
* ''Moods, Songs, and Doggerels'', 1912
* ''For Love of Beasts'', 1912
* ''Treatment of Animals'', 1913
* ''The Slaughter of Animals For Food'', 1913
* ''Abracadabra'', 1924
* ''The Forest'', 1924
* ''Old English'', 1924
* ''The Show'', 1925
* ''Verses New and Old'', 1926 (poems)
* ''Castles in Spain'', 1927
* ''[[Bambi, a Life in the Woods|Bambi]]'', Mar 16, 1928, wrote the foreword to Felix Salten's now famous novel
* ''Exiled'', 1929
* ''The Roof'', 1929
* ''The Creation of Character in Literature'', 1931 (The [[Romanes Lecture]] for 1931).
* ''Forty Poems'', 1932
* ''Autobiographical Letters of Galsworthy: A Correspondence with Frank Harris'', 1933
* ''Collected Poems'', 1934
* ''The Life and Letters'', 1935
* ''The Winter Garden'', 1935
* ''Selected Short Stories'', 1935
* ''Glimpses and Reflections'', 1937
* ''Galsworthy's Letters to Leon Lion'', 1968
* ''Letters from John Galsworthy 1900–1932'', 1970

==Notes, references and sources==

===Notes===

{{Reflist|group=n}}

===References===

{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
* {{cite book | last = Bishop | first = Edward | title = A Virginia Woolf Chronology | url = https://archive.org/details/virginiawoolfchr00bish | year = 1989 | location = London | publisher = Macmillan | isbn = 978-1-349-07883-7}}
* {{cite book|author1=Cherry, Bridget |authorlink=Bridget Cherry |author2= [[Nikolaus Pevsner]]|title=The Buildings of England, London 2: South|date=1983|publisher=Penguin Books|location=Harmondsworth |isbn=978-0-14-071047-2 }}
* {{cite book|last=Cooper|first=Robert|title=The Literary Guide & Companion to Southern England|publisher=Ohio University Press |location = Athens|year=1998| isbn=978-0-8214-1225-1|url=https://archive.org/details/literaryguidecom00coop}}
* {{cite book | last = Drabble | first = Margaret | author-link = Margaret Drabble | url = https://archive.org/details/arnoldbennettbi00drab | title = Arnold Bennett | year = 1974 | location = London | publisher = Weidenfeld & Nicolson | isbn = 978-0-297-76733-6}}
* {{cite book | last = Drabble| first = Margaret | title = The Oxford Companion to English Literature| publisher = Oxford University Press| date =1985 | location = Oxford | isbn = 978-0-19-866130-6}}
* {{cite book | last = Dupré| first =Catherine | title = John Galsworthy: A Biography| publisher = Collins| date =1976 | location =London | url=https://archive.org/details/johngalsworthybi0000dupr/page/12/mode/2up| isbn = 978-0-00-211392-2}}
* {{cite book | last =Eagle | first =Dorothy|author2=Hilary Carnell | title = The Oxford Literary Guide to the British Isles| publisher =Clarendon Press | date =1977 | location =Oxford | isbn =978-0-19-869123-5 }}
* {{cite book | last = Fisher | first = John | title =The World of the Forsytes| publisher = Secker & Warburg| date = 1976| location = London| isbn = 0-436-15704-7}}
* {{cite book | last = Fréchet | first = Alec | title =John Galsworthy A Reassessment| publisher = Palgrave Macmillan| date = 1982| orig-date=1979| location = London| isbn = 978-1-34-905995-9}}
* {{cite book | last = Galsworthy | first= John | title = A Sheaf| publisher = Heinemann| date = 1916 |url= https://archive.org/details/asheafgalsworthy00gals/mode/2up| location = London | oclc =1039945106}}
*{{cite book | last = Galsworthy | first = John | title = On Forsyte 'Change| publisher = Heinemann | date = 1930| location = London  |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.13134/page/n11/mode/2up| oclc = 1077958931}}
* {{cite book | last = Gindin | first = James | title = John Galsworthy's Life And Art: An Alien's Fortress| publisher = Macmillan | date = 1987| location = Basingstoke | url=https://archive.org/details/johngalsworthysl00gind/page/n5/mode/2up?|isbn = 978-0-333-40812-4}}
* {{cite book | last=Hart-Davis | first=Rupert |authorlink=Rupert Hart-Davis | year=1997| orig-year=1952| title=Hugh Walpole | location=Stroud |publisher=Sutton| isbn=978-0-7509-1491-8}}
* {{cite book | last =Holloway | first = David| title =John Galsworthy | publisher =Morgan Grampian | date = 1968| location =London | url=https://archive.org/details/johngalsworthy0000unse/mode/2up| isbn = 978-0-249-43974-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Holroyd |first=Michael| authorlink=Michael Holroyd |title=Bernard Shaw: The One-Volume Definitive Edition |year=1997 |location=London |publisher=Chatto & Windus |isbn=978-0-7011-6279-5}}
* {{cite thesis | last = Howarth | first = Barry | title = The Craft of Arnold Bennett | year = 2016 | location = Liverpool | url = http://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3001694/1/200567706_Jan2016.pdf | publisher = University of Liverpool | oclc = 1063646459 | access-date = 6 June 2020 }}
* {{cite book | last = Kaye-Smith | first = Sheila | title = John Galsworthy| publisher= Nisbet  | date = 1916| location = London | oclc= 25115953 }}
* {{cite book | last= Lyttelton| first= George|authorlink= George William Lyttelton| author2=Rupert Hart-Davis|title=The Lyttelton Hart-Davis Letters, Volume I | year= 1978| location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/lytteltonhartdav00lytt/page/132/mode/2up| publisher=John Murray | isbn= 978-0-7195-3478-2}}
* {{cite book | last = Marrot | first =H. V. | title = The Life and Letters of John Galsworthy| publisher = Heinemann | date = 1935| location = London| oclc = 486573}}
* {{cite book | last = Morgan | first = Ted | authorlink = Ted Morgan (writer)| title = Maugham | date = 1980 | location = New York | publisher = Simon & Schuster | isbn = 978-0-67-150581-3| oclc = 1036531202 | url = https://archive.org/details/maugham00tedm/page/n3/mode/2up}}
* {{cite book | last = Mottram | first = R. H. | author-link = R. H. Mottram | title = For Some We Loved: an Intimate Portrait of Ada and John Galsworthy| publisher = Hutchinson | date = 1956| location = London}}
* {{cite book | last = Mottram | first = R. H. | title = John Galsworthy. Writers and Their Work No. 38| publisher = Longmans Green & Co. | date = 1953| location = London}}
* {{cite book | last = Raphael | first = Frederic | authorlink=Frederic Raphael | title = Somerset Maugham| date = 1989| location = London | publisher = Thames and Hudson | oclc = 658161005}}
* {{cite book | last=Steele | first=Elizabeth | year=1972 | title=Hugh Walpole | url=https://archive.org/details/hughwalpole00stee | location=London | publisher=Twayne | isbn=978-0-8057-1560-6  }}
* {{cite book|last=Wodehouse|first=P. G.|authorlink=P. G. Wodehouse|author2=[[Guy Bolton]] |year=1980|title=Wodehouse on Wodehouse |location=London|publisher=Hutchinson|isbn=978-0-09-143210-2}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
;Digital editions
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-galsworthy}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=850}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Galsworthy, John|name=John Galsworthy|author=yes}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=John Galsworthy}}
* [https://archive.org/details/TheForsyteFamily The Forsyte Chronicles]
* {{Librivox author}}
* {{OL author}}
* [https://www.greatwartheatre.org.uk/db/person/287/ Plays by John Galsworthy on Great War Theatre]
* {{Nobelprize}}
* [http://noblib.internet-box.ch/NLEW.php?authorid=32 List of Works]
*{{IMDb name|id=0303335}}

;Biographical entries
* [https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-33314 John Galsworthy] at [[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100811043215/http://newbooksinhistory.com/?p=2414 Interview] with Galsworthy biographer Jeffrey Reznick on "New Books in History".
* [http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/remain/search.php?searchletters=authsearch422 John Galsworthy letters]. Available online through Lehigh University's [http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/remain/search.php?searchletters=authsearch422 I Remain: A Digital Archive of Letters, Manuscripts, and Ephemera].
* {{PM20}}

;Physical collections
* [https://archives-manuscripts.dartmouth.edu/repositories/2/resources/1547 The Papers of John Galsworthy] at Dartmouth College Library

{{s-start}}
{{s-npo}}
{{s-bef|before=None}} 
{{s-ttl|title=International President of [[PEN International]]|years=1921–1933}} 
{{s-aft|after=[[H. G. Wells]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{John Galsworthy|state=expanded}}
{{Nobel Prize in Literature Laureates 1926-1950}}
{{1932 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Animal rights|state=collapsed|advocates}}
{{The Forsyte Saga}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Galsworthy, John}}
[[Category:1867 births]]
[[Category:1933 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:19th-century English short story writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century English essayists]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century English poets]]
[[Category:20th-century English short story writers]]
[[Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford]]
[[Category:British animal welfare scholars]]
[[Category:English animal rights activists]]
[[Category:Presidents of the English Centre of PEN]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Literature]]
[[Category:People educated at Harrow School]]
[[Category:People from Kingston upon Thames]]
[[Category:English Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of Merit]]
[[Category:English male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:English male novelists]]
[[Category:English anti-vivisectionists]]
[[Category:British people of World War I]]
[[Category:Deaths from atherosclerosis]]