John Galsworthy

John Galsworthy  (14 August 1867 to 31 January 1933) was an English playwright and novelist whose most notable works include The Forsyte Saga (1906–1921) and the sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932. Galsworthy was born at Galsworthy House (then "Parkhurst") on Kingston Hill, Surrey, England, and was the son of John and Blanche Bailey Galsworthy. The family was a prosperous and well established one, who owned a large property at Kingston upon Thames. It now accommodates three schools: Marymount International School, Rokeby Preparatory School, and Holy Cross Preparatory School. Attending Harrow and New College, Oxford he took a Second in Law (Jurisprudentia) in 1889. After training as a barrister in 1890 he was called to the bar, but was not keen on law and instead travelled overseas to look after the family shipping interests. He met Joseph Conrad, then the first mate of a sailing-ship moored in Adelaide Harbour, Australia, where the two future novelists became friends. Galsworthy began an affair with Ada Nemesis Pearson Cooper in 1895, who was the wife of his cousin Major Arthur Galsworthy. She divorced 10 years later, and married John in September 1905, staying with him until his death in 1933. Prior to their marriage, they stayed clandestinely together in a farmhouse, "Wingstone" in Manaton on Dartmoor, in Devon.