Information AboutJames Clavell |
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James Clavell, ( British Royal Artillery ) ( 10 October , 1924 – 7 September , 1994 ) was a Novelist , Screenwriter , and World War II POW , who was famous for books such as '' Shogun '', and such films as '' The Great Escape '' and '' To Sir, With Love ''. PERSONAL LIFE Clavell was born in Sydney , Australia (however, some sources state that he was born in the United Kingdom and was taken to Australia at an early age), and christened Charles Edmund DuMaresq de Clavelle. His father was an officer in the Royal Navy , so Clavell was raised in many different places within the British Commonwealth . Following the outbreak of World War II , in 1940, aged 16, he joined the British Royal Artillery , and was sent to Malaya to fight the Japanese . Wounded by machine gun fire, he was eventually captured and sent to a Japanese prisoner of war camp on Java . Later, he was transferred to Changi Prison near Singapore . Like nearly all the POWs, Clavell suffered greatly at the hands of his Japanese captors (although most of the guards were in fact Korean). His experiences in the POW camp became the basis of his first novel, '' King Rat '', published in 1962. Clavell was not embittered by his experiences and his portrait of Japanese culture in the novel Shogun is quite sympathetic. By 1946, Clavell had risen to the rank of Captain, but a motorcycle accident ended his military career. He enrolled at the University Of Birmingham , where he met April Stride, an actress, whom he married in 1951. Through her, Clavell was introduced to the movie industry, and developed a desire to be a director. He moved with his family to New York City in 1953, where he worked in television, and soon thereafter to Hollywood. Eventually he earned success as a screenwriter with films such as '' The Fly '' and '' Watusi ''. He co-wrote the classic film '' The Great Escape '', which firmly established his reputation in Hollywood. By 1959 he was producing and directing films of his own. In 1963, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States . He died of a stroke while battling Cancer in Switzerland in 1994, one month before his 70th birthday. "THE ASIAN SAGA" After publishing '' King Rat '' in 1962, Clavell returned to novels with '' Tai-Pan '' in 1966. Set during the founding period of Hong Kong in the 1840s, ''Tai-Pan'' became the model for Clavell's later novels, which involve a large number of characters and numerous loosely interwoven plots. '' Shogun '' was published in 1975 and became his most popular book. With '' Noble House '' he began his practice of connecting these formerly disparate novels together by having characters, or families, or descendents of families (some from as far back as 400 years) from the previous novels appearing in the plot of the current one. Both ''Shogun'' and ''Noble House'' were made into television mini- series. '' Whirlwind '' came next and was set during the Iranian Revolution of 1979. For this novel he received the largest advance payment, at the time, for an unwritten work. Many critics leapt on this in their reviews and ignored the content of the story. Nevertheless it was not the big seller that the previous two novels had been and no television version or movie was produced. '' Gai-Jin '' was published shortly before his death and took the story back to the 1860's. One of the main connections in this saga (they are only missing from King Rat and '''Shogun''') is the history of the Struans , a trading company, based on the actual company Jardine Matheson . These novels, taken together, came to be officially known as The Asian Saga . The main theme tying these books together is the meeting of Western Civilization and East Asian civilization after the '' Age Of Discovery '' and up to modern times. Clavell is sometimes called one of the first multiculturalists. Although he did not call himself a Cultural Relativist , he attempted to admire Asian cultures by their own standards rather than viewing them through a Western lens. He often implied that the West has a great deal to learn from the East. His protagonists are Westerners (mainly Britons) brought to Asia for commercial purposes. Clavell was a believer in the benefits of Free Trade between nations, seeing it not as a form of exploitation but as a means of bringing different cultures together by binding them together in common interest. Because of this, there is little Anti-imperialism in Clavell's works. It may be said that the real protagonists in Clavell's novels are not the characters, but the time and place; the characters are the canvas on which Clavell illustrates a culture. FILMS
Tai-Pan and '''King Rat''' have both been adapted as feature films, however Clavell was not directly involved in their writing. NOVELS 'The Asian Saga'
As of 2005, Whirlwind and '''Gai-Jin''' remain the only Clavell novels yet to be adapted as films or miniseries; although at various times media have reported that such productions are planned, to date nothing has emerged. Similarly, media reports that Tai-Pan is to be adapted as a miniseries have yet to come to pass. As noted above, Tai-Pan has already been adapted as a poorly-received motion picture. Other books include:
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