V. S. Pritchett

Victor Sawdon Pritchett was born into lower-middle-class England in 1900. A true autodidact, he left school before he was sixteen, published his first piece at twenty-three, and for the rest of his life earned his living by his pen. The author of book reviews, essays, travel pieces, literary criticism, novels, memoirs, and, most notably, short stories, Pritchett chronicled in one form or another the literature and society of England for almost a century. He published regularly until well into his eighties. Pritchett died in London in 1997.

Photograph courtesy of Chatto & Windus.