Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. John Robert
Fowles (31 March 1926 - 5 November 2005) was an English novelist and
essayist. In 2008, The Times newspaper named Fowles among their list of
"The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". During late 1960, though
he had already drafted The Magus, Fowles began working on The Collector.
He finished his first draft in a month, but spent more than a year
making revisions before showing it to his agent. Michael S. Howard, the
publisher at Jonathan Cape was enthusiastic about the manuscript. The
book was published during 1963 and when the paperback rights were sold
in the spring of that year it was "probably the highest price that had
hitherto been paid for a first novel," according to Howard. The success
of his novel meant that Fowles was able to stop teaching and devote
himself full-time to a literary career. The Collector was also optioned
and became a film in 1965.
