Editing Anthony Burgess (section)

=== Early life ===
In 1917, Burgess was born at 91 Carisbrook Street in [[Harpurhey]], a suburb of [[Manchester]], [[England]], to Catholic parents, Joseph and Elizabeth Wilson.<ref name="Oxfordbiog">{{cite ODNB|last=Ratcliffe|first=Michael|contribution=Wilson, John Burgess [Anthony Burgess] (1917–1993)|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/51526?docPos=2|title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/51526|edition=online|access-date=20 June 2011}}</ref> He described his background as [[lower middle class]]; growing up during the [[Great Depression in the United Kingdom|Great Depression]], his parents, who were shopkeepers, were fairly well off, as the demand for their tobacco and alcohol wares remained constant. He was known in childhood as Jack, Little Jack, and Johnny Eagle.<ref name="Lewis67">{{Harvnb|Lewis|2002|p=67}}.</ref> At his [[Confirmation in the Catholic Church|confirmation]], the name Anthony was added and he became John Anthony Burgess Wilson. He began using the [[pen name]] Anthony Burgess upon the publication of his 1956 novel ''Time for a Tiger''.<ref name="Oxfordbiog" />

His mother Elizabeth (''née'' Burgess) died at the age of 30 at home on 19 November 1918, during the [[1918 flu pandemic]]. The causes listed on her death certificate were [[influenza]], acute [[pneumonia]], and [[cardiac failure]]. His sister Muriel had died four days earlier on 15 November from influenza, [[broncho-pneumonia]], and cardiac failure, aged eight.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2002|p=62}}.</ref> Burgess believed he was resented by his father, Joseph Wilson, for having survived, when his mother and sister did not.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2002|p=64}}.</ref>

After the death of his mother, Burgess was raised by his maternal aunt, Ann Bromley, in [[Crumpsall]] with her two daughters. During this time, Burgess's father worked as a bookkeeper for a beef market by day, and in the evening played piano at a public house in [[Miles Platting]].<ref name="Lewis67" /> After his father married the landlady of this pub, Margaret Dwyer, in 1922, Burgess was raised by his father and stepmother.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2002|p=68}}.</ref> By 1924 the couple had established a [[tobacconist]] and [[Alcohol licensing laws of the United Kingdom#Off-licence|off-licence]] business with four properties.{{sfn|Lewis|2002|p=70}} Burgess was briefly employed at the tobacconist shop as a child.<ref name=":0" /> On 18 April 1938, Joseph Wilson died from cardiac failure, [[pleurisy]], and influenza at the age of 55, leaving no inheritance despite his apparent business success.{{sfn|Lewis|2002|pp=70–71}} Burgess's stepmother died of a heart attack in 1940.{{sfn|Lewis|2002|p=107}}

Burgess has said of his largely solitary childhood "I was either distractedly persecuted or ignored. I was one despised.&nbsp;... Ragged boys in gangs would pounce on the well-dressed like myself."<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2002|pp=53–54}}.</ref> Burgess attended St. Edmund's Elementary School, before moving on to Bishop Bilsborrow Memorial Elementary School, both [[Catholic schools in the United Kingdom|Catholic schools]], in [[Moss Side]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2002|p=57}}.</ref> He later reflected "When I went to school I was able to read. At the Manchester elementary school I attended, most of the children could not read, so I was&nbsp;... a little apart, rather different from the rest."<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2002|p=66}}</ref> Good grades resulted in a place at [[Xaverian College]] (1928–37).<ref name="Oxfordbiog" />

==== Music ====
Burgess was indifferent to music until he heard on his home-built [[Radio receiver|radio]] "a quite incredible flute solo", which he characterised as "sinuous, exotic, erotic", and became spellbound.<ref name="McGraw 17-18">{{Harvnb|Burgess|1982|pp=17–18}}.</ref> Eight minutes later the announcer told him he had been listening to ''[[Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune]]'' by [[Claude Debussy]]. He referred to this as a "[[Psychedelic experience|psychedelic]] moment&nbsp;... a recognition of verbally inexpressible spiritual realities".<ref name="McGraw 17-18" /> When Burgess announced to his family that he wanted to be a composer, they objected as "there was no money in it".<ref name="McGraw 17-18" /> Music was not taught at his school, but at the age of about 14 he taught himself to play the piano.<ref>{{Harvnb|Burgess|1982|p=19}}.</ref>

==== University ====
Burgess had originally hoped to study music at university, but the music department at the [[Victoria University of Manchester]] turned down his application because of poor grades in [[physics]].<ref name=HRC>{{cite web|url=http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/burgess.bio.html|title=Anthony Burgess, 1917–1993, Biographical Sketch|work=Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050830172945/http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/burgess.bio.html|archive-date=30 August 2005|date=8 June 2004}}</ref> Instead, he studied [[English language]] and [[English literature|literature]] there between 1937 and 1940, graduating with a [[Bachelor of Arts]]. His thesis concerned [[Christopher Marlowe|Marlowe]]'s ''[[The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus|Doctor Faustus]]'', and he graduated with an [[upper second-class honours]], which he found disappointing.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2002|pp=97–98}}.</ref> When grading one of Burgess's term papers, the historian [[A. J. P. Taylor]] wrote: "Bright ideas insufficient to conceal lack of knowledge."<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2002|p=95}}.</ref>

==== Marriage ====
Burgess met Llewela "Lynne" Isherwood Jones at the university where she was studying economics, politics and modern history, graduating in 1942 with an upper second-class.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lewis|2002|pp=109–110}}.</ref> Burgess and Jones were married on 22 January 1942.<ref name="Oxfordbiog" /> She was the daughter of secondary school headmaster Edward Jones (1886–1963) and Florence (née Jones; 1867–1956), and reportedly claimed to be a distant relative of [[Christopher Isherwood]], although the Lewis and Biswell biographies dispute this.<ref>{{cite news |last=Mitang |first=Herbert |title=Anthony Burgess, 76, Dies; Man of Letters and Music |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/26/obituaries/anthony-burgess-76-dies-man-of-letters-and-music.html |type=obituary |access-date=31 August 2013 |date=26 November 1993}}</ref> According to Burgess's own account, it was not from his wife that the alleged connection to Christopher Isherwood originated: "Her father was an English Jones, her mother a Welsh one. [...] Of Christopher Isherwood [...] neither the Jones father or daughter had heard. She was unliterary&nbsp;..."<ref>Little Wilson and Big God, Anthony Burgess, Vintage, 2002, p.&nbsp;205.</ref> Biswell identifies Burgess as the origin of the alleged relationship with Christopher Isherwood—"if the rumour of an Isherwood affiliation signifies anything, it is that Burgess wanted people to believe that he was connected by marriage to another famous writer"—and notes that "Llewela was not, as Burgess claims in his autobiography, a 'cousin' of the writer Christopher Isherwood"; referring to a pedigree owned by the family, Biswell observes that "Llewela's father was descended from a female Isherwood"&nbsp;... "which means going back four generations&nbsp;... before encountering any Isherwoods", making any connection "at best" "tenuous and distant". He also establishes that per official records, "Llewela's family name was Jones, not (as Burgess liked to suggest) 'Isherwood Jones' or 'Isherwood-Jones'."<ref>The Real Life of Anthony Burgess, Andrew Biswell, Pan Macmillan, 2006, pp.&nbsp;71–72.</ref>