John Willett

John William Mills Willett (* June 24, 1917 in London, † August 20, 2002 ) was a British literary critic, translator, and Brecht expert.

Life

John Willett came from a family of builders. He grew up in London's Hampstead on, was educated at Winchester and Christ Church College, Oxford and then studied music in Vienna and stage. During World War II he served in the Eighth Army during the fighting in North Africa and Italy. His first book, Popski, which appeared in 1954, dealt with Vladimir Peniakoff.

From 1948 to 1951 Willet worked for the Manchester Guardian, which he left after differences with the editor AP Wadsworth. From 1960 to 1967 he was co-editor of the Times Literary Supplement, for which he wrote before this phase. As co-publisher, he took care of, among others, to the artistic design of the sheet, leaving about RB Kitaj, Giorgio Morandi and Kokoschka make single copies.

An article in the Times Literary Supplement in 1956 led to the first meeting between Willett and Bertolt Brecht and of the efforts to bring Brecht's Berliner Ensemble to London. Three years after Brecht's death came the first edition of Willett's work The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht. A Study from Eight Aspects out. In 1964 he published the translation of Brecht's theoretical writings into English under the title Brecht on Theatre. The Development of an Aestetic. From 1970, the collected pieces Brecht came out in English. Willett was the editor along with Ralph Manheim. Later the poems, diaries and letters to follow. The last work of Brecht, which issued Willett, was Bad Time for Poetry. The book was published in 1995. He was also temporarily editor of the Brecht Yearbook of the International Brecht Society.

Other fields Willetts were the time of the Weimar Republic, which he in 1978, the work Art and Politics in Weimar Germany. The New Sobriety and 1984 The Weimar Years. A Culture Cut Short and 1988, The Theatre of the Weimar Republic published, as well as the visual arts.

John Willett, who lived for a time in France, was married and had a daughter and a son.