John Galsworthy (August 14 1867 - January 31, 1933) was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga (1906 - 1921) and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1932.

Born at Kingston Hill in Surrey, England into an established wealthy family, Galsworthy attended Harrow and New College, Oxford, training as a barrister. However, he soon began to put his writing first, especially after forming a friendship with Joseph Conrad. His first play, The Silver Box (1906) became a success, and he followed it up with The Man of Property (1906), the first in the Forsyte trilogy. This remains by far his best-known work, but in his lifetime he published several other novels, including The Island Pharisees (1904) and many plays, the best-known of which include Strife (1909) and The Skin Game (1920). Much of Galsworthy's work contains social commentary, focusing especially on the British class system. The depiction of a woman in an unhappy marriage furnishes another recurring theme in his work.

John Galsworthy died from a brain tumour.

External links

• Project Gutenberg e-texts of some of John Galsworthy's works