J. W. N. Sullivan
This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2018) |
John William Navin Sullivan (1886–1937) was an English popular science writer and literary journalist, and the author of a study of
Life and works
Sullivan fictionalized his origins, and at one point persuaded
In 1913 he returned to Britain, working as a journalist. Early in the
After the war, Murry took on the editorship of
Sullivan's mathematical ability (said to be comparable to that of a Senior Wrangler[according to whom?] at the University of Cambridge) allowed him to fully understand Einstein's general theory of relativity as few in England were able to do. This enabled him to explain the theory in non-technical language and his articles on Einstein's general theory of relativity in April and May 1919 were among the first to appear in English. He was also quick to recognize the larger philosophical implications of the new spirit in the physical sciences, and to see that the creativity of the physical sciences and their supposed idealistic philosophical basis allowed for reconciliation between the arts and the sciences. Some of his articles on such topics, along with other non-technical scientific articles, were gathered in Aspects of Science (1923) and Aspects of Science: Second Series (1926). He wrote Beethoven: His Spiritual Development, a well received study of the artist, in 1927.[1] Along with other leading figures of the day, he contributed to An Outline of Modern Knowledge (1931).
Sullivan continued to write for the Athenaeum following its incorporation into
Sullivan separated from his first wife in 1921, and married Vere Bartrick Baker in October, 1928, with whom he had a son, Navin (born in 1929). In the early 1930s he was increasingly troubled by bad health, and in 1934 was diagnosed as suffering from
In Fiction
The character Calamy in Aldous Huxley's Those Barren Leaves (1925) may have been partly based on Sullivan.[2]
Sullivan made a posthumous cameo appearance in W.J. Turner's novel The Duchess of Popocatepetl (1939), described there as "gay, romantic, brilliant... a man of powerful mind, capable of sharp penetration, rapid co-ordination, and lucid exposition altogether removed from the ordinary."[3]
Sullivan is a main character in Andrew Crumey's novel Beethoven's Assassins (2023).
Publications
Non-fiction
- Atoms and Electrons (1923)
- The History of Mathematics in Europe (1925)
- Three Men Discuss Relativity (1925)
- Beethoven: His Spiritual Development (1927)
- The Bases of Modern Science (1928)
- How Things Behave: A Child's Introduction to Physics (1932)
- The Physical Nature of the Universe (1932)
- Limitations of Science (1933)
- Contemporary Mind: Some Modern Answers (1934)
- Outline of Modern Belief: Modern Science, Modern Thought, Religious Thought (1934) [with Walter Grierson]
- Science: A New Outline (1935)
- Living Things (1938)
Novels
- An Attempt at Life (1917)
- But for the Grace of God (1932)
- A Holiday Task (1936)
References
- ^ Beethoven: His Spiritual Development, J. W. N. Sullivan. Mentor Books, 1949, jacket copy by Clifton Fadiman
- ^ Bradshaw, David (1996). "The Best of Companions: J. W. N. Sullivan, Aldous Huxley, and the New Physics (Concluded)". The Review of English Studies. 47 (187): 352–68. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
- ^ Bradshaw, David (1996). ""The Best of Companions: J. W. N. Sullivan, Aldous Huxley, and the New Physics."". The Review of English Studies. 47 (186): 188–206. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
- Singer, Charles. "Memoir." Newton by J.W.N. Sullivan (London: Macmillan, 1938).
- Whitworth, Michael H. "Physics and the Literary Community, 1905–1939" (Oxford, D.Phil. thesis, 1995), Appendix A and Bibliographies B and C.