A SeparatePeace:Four Decades of Critical Response

Lois Rauch Gibson

Rejected at first by American publishers, John Knowles' A SeparatePeaceappeared

in England in 1959, where critics admiringly compared it to Salinger's writings.
American critics, responding in 1960 to the American edition. generally noted its
depth. sensitivity, and "disturbing allegories" (Aitken 754). They did not entirely
agree about what the allegories might be, n~r have the four decades of critics since.

Critical response to the novel has been amazingly abundant over the forty-five
years since its British publication. producing a combined total of ten to twenty
reviews, articles, or books per decade. With one book, two articles, and one (not
yet released) made-for-TV movie already produced since 2000, the next decade
should be equally rich. Yet despite the changes in critical fashions, the critical
approaches to this novel varied surprisingly little until 2002, addressing primarily
the fall from innocence, the boys' school setting, the torments of adolescence, the
movement toward or away from self-knowledge, the role of doubles, and narrative
strategies.

Early critical interpretations of the relationship between the two main characters,
teenaged boys Phineas and Gene, cover a wide range. In 1959, Anne Duchene
wrote that Knowles "draws with tenderness and restraint the pure joy of
affection" between them (754). At the other extreme, Harding Lemay noted in 1960
"the corroding flaw in friendship between young males. . . .a theme which echoes
in every sensitive man's experience" (246). None of the earliest critics directly
mentions homoerotic undertones. But in 2002, two excellent articles appeared in
Children's Uterature about Knowles' novel which, like Robert Cormier's The
Chocolate War, was not initially conceived as.adolescent literature, but which has
become part of that canon. Both articles address issues of gender and
homosexuality in A SeparatePeace. This surprised me; not because I had missed
the clear homoerotic undertones in the novel (I had, in fact, been quite aware of
them), but because the appearance of two such articles in the same issue of a
journal made me realize how infrequently the criticism had ever discussed this
aspect of the novel. The major impact of discovering these articles was that I
decided to do a retrospective analysis of the changes in the criticism of Knowles'
1959 novel. sure that I would discover clear reflections of the social values and
critical preferences of the eras in which the criticism appeared. For the most part,
 Postscript 10 Gibson 11
this did not happen. So what follows is an overview of the criticism, but not as the
chronological retrospective I had planned. Instead, the overview presents by when questioned about the relationship during a 1972 Ingenue interview about the
groups the major approaches to the novel, to which critics have returned over the film version of the novel, claimed "Finnyand Gene were in love-not physically
years. It begins with the recent articles by James Holt McGavran and Eric but emotionally-the book shows that there is nothing wrong with that" (qtd. in
Tribunella, who both apply queer theory to the book. Interspersed and at the end Bryant, War Within 68). Actually, it was John Heyl, the actor who plays Finny, who
are suggestions for future research and writing. made that comment. But Knowles did not contradict him.

Despite the complexity of characters and theme, Knowles' plot is fairly simple. Both McGavran and Tribunella recognize what McGavran calls "the continuing
Narrator Gene Forrester returns to Devon, which is based on Knowles' own prep strength of homophobia and homosexual panic in Western society" (79), though
school, Exeter. It is fifteen years since he's been back, and Gene has some spirits to they disagree about whether Heyl is correct that the book "shows that there is
exorcise-or, to put it another way, he needs to put closure on his prep school nothing wrong with" Gene and Finny being in love. Both McGavran and
experiences. He recounts the story of the summer of 1942 and the year that followed, Tribunella draw from the landmark works by Eve Sedgwick on male homosocial
focusing on his love/hate relationship with best friend Phineas (called Finny), an desires and Judith Butler on gender identity, as well as from many other solid
excellent athlete and charismatic nonconformist leader. Gene especially wants to literary, psychological, and philosophical works. But their conclusions about the
visit two sites: first, the tree out of which he 'had (most likely) caused Finny to fall relationship between Gene and Finny differ'markedly.
and break his leg; and second, the building where Gene's mock-trial was held,
which so upset Finny that he fell again, this time on the building's marble steps, McGavran's article, "Fear's Echo and Unhinged Joy: Crossing Homosocial
fatally re-breaking the same leg. The complicated relationship between the boys, and Boundaries in A SeparatePeace,"focuses primarily on the inherent instability and
the roles in their lives of Big Man On Campus Brinker Hadley and loner Elwin fluidity of gender roles, and the ways in which Gene and Finny "trade roles as
(Leper) Lepellier form the basis for the plot. In the background looms World War II, upholders and subverters of their own relationship and the codes of society" (68).
to which most of the boys expect to be sent before long. McGavran provides overwhelming and conyincing evidence of the intensity of the
feelings between Gene and Phineas, from their wrestling scene, to their night on
Though McGavran's and Tribunella's articles break ground in terms of applying the beach. to their admiration for each other's physical beauty, to their merging
queer theory to Knowles' novel, a few earlier critics considered the sexual into one another as Gene deliberately dons Finny's pink shirt-the one he had
overtones in the relationship between Gene and Phineas, and some students and earlier warned Finny might lead people to call him a fairy. Later, Gene actually
their parents noticed-sometimes trying to ban the book (Sova 213-14). But most becomes an athlete for the crippled Finny. This merging of identities substitutes in
readers and critics generally rejected the idea of the relationship being more than a way for physical expressions of love.
an intense friendship until French critic Georges-Michel 5arotte's Like a Laver, Like a
Brother appeared in 1976 (English translation by Richard Miller in 1978). 5arotte As McGavran notes, Gene's rejection of Finny's "open intimacy" (77) as they are
places Gene and Finny squarely in one of the "four archetypes of the homosexual about to fall asleep at the beach is an example of what Sedgwick calls homosocial
couple" (35), but even he discusses it under the heading "Intense Friendships: panic. Finny says he is glad to be sharing this experience with his "best pal," but
Relationship Rejected" (44). Nonetheless, he notes that in the essentially all-male Gene is unable to respond:
world of the boys' school, "friendship turns into hatred out of fear of its changing It was a courageous thing to say. Exposing a sincere emotion like that
into love" (45). 5arotte believes that Gene's repression of his feelings has created a at the Devon School was the next thing to suicide. I should have told
loss of identity and fifteen years of neurosis; his return to Devon is an attempt to him then that he was my best friend also and rounded off what he had
delve into his feelings, and an "expression of an insurmountable frustration for said. I started to; I nearly did. But something held me back. Perhaps I
having missed out on happiness" (46). was stopped by that level of feeling, deeper than thought, which
contains the truth. (55; also qtd. in McGavran 77)
Hallman Bell Bryant quotes extensively from 5arotte in A Separate Peace: The War But at Finny's deathbed, as the boys try to come to terms with what happened at the
Within (1990), but concludes that Knowles was writing in "the repressed 19505 time of Finny's fall from the tree, and also with their feelings, Gene cries out in
rather than the liberated 1980s," so he "represses any sexually overt overtones in agony, "Tell me how to show you." Finny replies, "You've already shown me" (239;
the intense relationship between Gene and Finny" (67). He notes that Knowles, also qtd. in McGavran 77).
 Postscript 12 Gibson 13

Oearly more attention to Leper is warranted for many reasons. Not only is he the
Would the relationship have become physical had Finny lived? Would the boys have
key "witness," but he is also the first war casualty of their class; and as the
experienced closer bonding, or homophobic division? These are questions McGavran
asks, and he acknowledges that, perhaps because of the historical context, "Knowles perennial outsider, he is aptly nicknamed. Similarly, Brinker's name becomes
leaves open the question of Gene's adult sexual orientation" (70). Still, he focuses on
suggestive when one realizes his role of bringing the boys to the brink -of the
truth, of a precipice, of revelations no one but Brinker ultimately wants to hear.
Gene's joy as well as his fear, and on the way that "Finny's continuing presence" in
Gene's life saves Gene "perhaps not from some continuing sense of loss, but from his
Despite much discussion of Gene Forrester's and Phineas's official names, no one
feelings of guilt and fear" (78). Ultimately, McGavran sees this novel as a "brilliant has yet examined the implications of the androgynous nature of Gene's and
and teachable example of the clash between the fluidity of gender and the restraints of
Finny's nicknames, nor the more complex iSsue of the somewhat misogynistic
nature of their world.
homophobic discourse" (79).

Tribunella is less pleased with the message of Knowles' novel, as his title indicates: No feminist critics have yet commented on the paucity of women in the book. or

"Refusing the Queer Potential." He believes the all-male school setting places the on the negative image of those few who appear. In the 1972 Ingenue article with the
boys in a perfect position for male bonding, and also for the traditional crushes nineteen-year-old actors (John Heyl and Parker Stevenson) who starred in the 1972
film version of his book. Knowles affirms that dating was rare in the Exeter
common in same-sex schools. But by assuming that these crushes are part of
adolescence and will be outgrown, Tribunella argues, A SeparatePeacereinforces Academy of 1942. He recalls that boys were permitted only three weekends a term
off-campus, and they had to have good grades and a prior invitation from a girl
the assumption that heterosexuality is the norm. In other words, the book suggests
that homosexuality is a stage that one outgrows en route to adulthood and before being permitted to go ("A Separate Peace Interview"). In a 1985 Esquire
heterosexuality-a dangerous and erroneous assumption. interview, Knowles admits, perhaps a bit defensively, that, "In the novel there is
not a girl in sight." But then he adds "that means nothing-women of all ages and
The novel also raises the specter of other books involving teenagers and every background treat it as central to their view of life" (qtd. in Bryant,
homosexuality, in which one of the lovers dies, or other disasters occur. As Understanding_A Separate Peace 36). Perhaps they do, but it seems nonetheless
Michael Cart notes in a 1997 article that does not discuss A SeparatePeace,the odd that these boys do not even seem to think about girls-not exactly typical of
mortality rate was high in the first decade of adolescent novels involving teens life at a boys' prep school, then or now. In fact, there is some superficial evidence
who had had homosexual experiences (41), and those books were published a full 'that the boys are interested in girls: Brinker Hadley, at sixteen, owns a Betty Grable
decade after A SeparatePeace.In answer to the perennial question, "Why does pinup collection, and there is a passing allusion to the town's professional belle,
one Hazel Brewster (163). But even mothers are almost ignored; Phineas's mother
Finny die?" Tribunella answers, "Finny must die precisely because he refuses to
reject the possibility of loving Gene" (92). Had he lived, the relationship might does send him a pink shirt, and when narrator Gene visits Elwin (Leper)
have progressed -or it might not have. But TribuneUa believes that "Finny must Lepe1lier's home, Leper's mother is there-but that's it for mothers. Even on
die so that Gene can become a proper man" (93); that is, Finny must die if Gene is campus, Nurse Windbag and Mrs. Patch-Withers, nervous wife of the headmaster,
to conform to social norms.\ are the sole representatives of womanhood. Perhaps feminist critics interested in
addressing the role of women in the novel might look at the way C. Anita Tarr
Though they break much new ground, McGavran and Tribunella also leave explicitly tackles misogyny in The Chocolate War (104-10). Her article appears in the
openings to be explored. In a 2004 unpublished paper, Matthew Ferguson urges same journal issue as the McGavran and Tribune11a articles.
that we pay more attention to Leper's description of the scene at the tree. He notes
As for the central theme of this novel, which is set against the backdrop of World
that Leper, the naturalist, uses mechanical language-allusions to machine guns
and pistons, rather than to nature-to describe Finny's "accident." Ferguson War IT, that "wars [are] made by something ignorant in the human heart"
believes Knowles is suggesting that Gene could not help acting as he did, that "It (Knowles 252), surprisingly, only one critic, British reviewer Simon Raven,
was a reflex. It was his inner mechanical man reaching out and rejecting his considers a pacifist reading. Raven believes that Gene and Finny attempt a
childish, yet natural, homosexual urges" (4). "common-sense pacifism" -a kind of "personal withdrawal from political folly."
But their attempt is "doomed to painful failure unless everyone makes" the same
commitment-that is, a commitment to reject "the Generals on both sides." Raven
Postscript 14 Gibson 15
concludes that Knowles "makes it plain enough. . . that quiet common sense is a
feeble match for reality and the Generals," who are therefore "sure of [having] the Adam, Christ, Dionysus, and now Apollo-exalted roles for a boy still in his teens.
last word" (630). Hallman Bell Bryant adds to this grouping the possibility that Phineas is an angel.
After noting that, like other heroes-Beowulf, Tarzan, Shane-Phineas has only
Many other critics over the years have considered the implications of the war as one name, Bryant discusses the possible origins and the significance of that name:
macrocosm and the school as microcosm, including a cluster of comments on the a sooth-sayer-king of Greek myth, as well as three biblical figures-Aaron's son,
war during the closing stages of America's involvement in Vietnam;2 but the war who is a judge and priest; Eli's youngest son, a rebel and rule-breaker; and an
is not the real focus of any of the articles. angel in the book of Judges (2:1). Bryant likes this last one best, and he builds a
case for Finny as Gene's guardian angel (War Within 114-15).
Bryant's 1990 book, A Separate Peace: The War Within, actually begins with the line
"A SeparatePeacecan be read as a war novel" in a first chapter called "Historical Ronald Weber (1965) describes Finny not as guardian angel but as "archetypal
Context" (1). But other chapters are entitled "Before the Fall" and "After the Fall," innocent" who "must serve as the sacrifice" (27) to Gene's growing up and gaining
with both literal and figurative meanings operative. So the field is open for self-knowledge. But clearly both of these views see Finny as transcending the
deeper research into Knowles' treatment of war, perhaps in relation to other more human.
typical war novels frequently read by teens:. Stephen Crane's Red Badgeof Courage,
Walter Dean Myers' Fallen Angels, and, more recently, Dean Hughes' Soldier Boys. Some critics do see Phineas as just a boy. Sally Kempton (1968) calls the novel a
"schoolboy tragedy seen entirely in schoolboy's terms." She adds, "Its protagonist
Another way to categorize past critical response to A SeparatePeaceis by dividing was the classic prep-school hero. . . eccentric. . . innocent, straight, the victim of
it into what I have labeled the Good FinnylBad Gene school (the most popular someone else's destructive complexity" (258). Walter McDonald (1972) says Finny
one) and the smaller Good GenelBad Finny school of thought, though several is "not a perfect Greek god, but a frightened prep-school boy not daring to face the
critics define one boy as good without damning the other, and a few emphasize truth" about Gene's role in his fall or about the war (77). Several other writers,
the ambiguity and complexity of both of these characters. including Kathy Piehl in 1983, place the nov:el in the context of boys' school stories,
noting typical schoolboy concerns about classes and sports. In The Sporting Myth
Many critics in the "Good Finny" group see Finny as the hero of this novel. To and the American Experience (1975), Wiley Lee Umphlett sees Finny as the
them he is an American Adam, a Christ figure, a Greek god, an eternal or prototypical athlete dying young, a kind of "incarnation of the sporting hero
archetypal innocent, a sacrificial victim-often several of these at once. James before the fall" (84). Many readers incorrectly try to create a dichotomy,
Mellard (1966) says that in this novel, "filled with Christian symbols and a theme identifying Finny with sports and Gene with scholarship, when actually Gene
linked to original sin and the fortunate fall, Phineas becomes both Adam and excels at both academics and sports. He admits, though, that he is not a true
Christ" (41). Gordon Slethaug, in a 1984 article, agrees that Finny's "combined intellectual: Gene excels at school work because he can, not because he has any
good looks, fine sense of balance and tremendous energy create the sense of an interest in learning for its own sake.
adamic, unfallen youth or some Dionysus whose physical beauty predates and
transcends his twentieth century context" (262).3 So far we have Finny as Adam, A few critics see Finny's very innocence as diabolical however. Paul Witherington
Christ, and Dionysus. (1965) while insisting on the novel's complexity and ambiguity in characterizations
and emotions, also describes Finny's innocence as a tool which he uses to
Marvin Mengeling, in a 1969 article, sees Finny as the embodiment of two Greek hypnotize others and get his own way-with teachers as well as classmates. Even
gods: Apollo and Dionysus. He is Apollo in summer, when he is associated with his insistence that there is no war turns out to be merely a way to mask his own
sunshine, with truth (he tells Gene one should never lie, even about one's height) inability to enlist because of his lameness following the tree accident. Witherington
and with healing, as he cures Gene's fear of jumping from the tree. But in winter, cites this false front as part of the illusion of innocence that Finny uses to control
Phineas is Dionysus, in the frenzied Winter Carnival which begins with the others. In addition, Witherington suggests that Finny's rule-breaking and pranks-
burning of a copy of The Iliad. his "skipping classes and meals, wearing the school tie as a belt, playing poker in
the dorm" (31), sleeping on the beach-may be serious breaches of discipline and
therefore "threats to the established order" (31). Yet what Witherington describes
Postscript 16 Gibson 17
as Finny's charming "audacity" and "simplicity" (31) -in short, his style-throws
Drukman with playwright Richard Greenberg about Greenberg's play TakeMe
those in power off balance, and he gets away with everything, thereby irritating
Gene, who would like to see Finny get into trouble at least once. Finny's ability to
Out, which won three Tony Awards in 2003. The play is about baseball and also
get away with everything, however, also sets up the potential for chaos in a
about being gay. At one point Drukman says, "But this play is really more tragic
carefully ordered and protected school world, as Witherington points out. In this than the tag 'gay baseballplay' suggests.To me it's not wilike A SeparatePeace."
sense, Finny is clearly not a force for good. And the playwright responds, "Oh my God! You know, it's hilarious that you said
that-nobody has said that. The narrator, that's part of it, sure, as is the crisis of
Joseph E. Devine offers a stranger and far leSs convincing reading of the Bad masculinity, of course. But recently when I read the play I heard an echo of that
Finny/Good Gene variety. Devine (1969) insists that Finny is actually a Nazi agent,
book, and I haven't read it in 20 years, so that's very astute. And it's also a love
while Gene is the all-American boy. It is not entirely clear whether Devine's story." But, he adds, the play is also about baseball.
reading is serious. For example, he sees the handwritten lines abov.e the printed
words in a Latin text not as a student translation but as a secret code. And that leads to what I believe about A SeparatePeace:it is perhaps a love story,
but also a war story; it is a story about friendship, and the human condition, and
the fall from innocence, and much more. One wonders whether future critics will
Other, more credible critics in the Good Gene school, such as Bryant, see Gene,
rather than Finny, as the American Adam, largely because it is he who loses his move in new directions, or recycle the approaches already taken to this
innocence in the Edenic world of Devon (War Within 52). Some, like Witherington, consistently challenging and ambiguous text.
see Finny as the tempter in the garden, luring Gene from his studies (31). Through
loss of innocence, however, Gene achieves self-knowledge, though partly at the One new direction might include biographical criticism. Interviews with Knowles
have established connections between Devon and Exeter, and between his characters
cost of his friend's life. Milton Foster (1968) believes Finny's death demonstrates
the high cost of self-knowledge in a corrupt world: only if Finny dies will Gene and his acquaintances at Exeter. But his experiences and relationships have not been
recognize the universal savagery and blind fury that lie at the heart of us all. fully examined. Perhaps it is time for more extensive literary biography, particularly
Through such recognition, Gene can rid himself of both the fear of war and the evil in response to the recent homosocia1 readings. For example, Knowles has said he
within. based Brinker Hadley on Gore Vidal, whom he knew only slightly at Exeter; later,
they became friends. Vidal, interestingly enough, has always refused to be described
Some critics< attack Gene as a Judas or a self-deceptive rationalizer, who does not as a "gay writer," rejecting the labels gay and straight in language that resembles
really know himself even during his visit to Devon fifteen years after Finny's much of current queer theory and criticism. In a November 14, 1981 essay in The
death. But Witherington sounds a note echoed by many when he argues that, Nation, "Some Jews and the Gays," he wrote, "The American passion for
while Finny falls physically and says he has' suffered, his suffering has not led him categorizing has now managed to create two non-existent categories-gay and
to wisdom: Finny says he has suffered and that's how he knows the war is not straight. Either you are one or the other. But since everyone is a mixture of
real - making clear he has not learned from his fall. Instead, Gene, who falls inclinations, the categories keep breaking down, the irrational takes over"(509).
spiritually, suffers for his sin (30). As a result, as in Greek tragedy, it is Gene who
gains wisdom, Gene who is the hero with the tragic flaw. Or perhaps he is merely In another interesting connection between Vidal and Knowles, Sarotte discusses
human, trying to grapple with fear and hatred in a flawed world. More likely he is both authors in the same chapter of his book on male homosexuality in American
the conflicted American whom Knowles ~lf describes in his book Double fiction and drama. He does not directly link them, but his comments about
Vision as "a careful Protestant with a savage stirring in his insides" (qtd. by Peter Knowles' Finny and Gene (Forrester), and about the prep school boys Flynn and
Wolfe in Karson 99), which sounds like a combination of the ways his friends Sawyer of "The Zenner Trophy," a 1956 Vidal story, suggest parallels that go far
Finny and Leper perceive Gene. beyond the boys' names and venues. That is surely a comparison worthy of study.

Here ends the overview of the major critical reactions to A SeparatePeacebetween As we approach the forty-fifth anniversary of the American edition of A Separate
1959 and 2002. We now return to where we began: the most recent criticism, which Peace,in a world where the all-male, all-white prep school environment has
finally addresses the question kept in the closet, so to speak, for so many years. become exceedingly rare, John Knowles' novel nonetheless continues to speak to
Recently, I discovered an online interview by former American Theatreeditor Steve adolescents. Once we fought wars against fascism, then against communism, now
Postscript 18 Gibson 19
against terrorism. Before this background, teenagers attend school, bond with
peers, lose their innocence, encounter hate and ignorance and what Knowles calls
Cormier, Robert. The ChocolateWar; A Novel. New York: Pantheon, 1974.
blind impulses; and each one inevitably struggles to develop an identity-sexual
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badgeof Courage.Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall,
and otherwise. As the world continues to change, no doubt the next four decades 1998.
of critics will have much to say about this resilient and compelling novel.
Devine, Joseph. "The Truth About A Separate Peace." English Journal 58 (1969): 519-
20.
t One problem with applying queer theory to the book, no matter how convincingly, Is that It feeds
Into the stereotype that boys who have Intense, emot,lonal friendships must be gay. Nonetheless, Drukrnan, Steve. "Greenberg's Got Game.", American TheatreOnline 19 (Oct. 2002).16
these are important articles that open the door to discussion of an important aspect of Knowles' Mar. 2004<http://www.tcg.orglam_theatre/at_artic1es/AT_Volume_19/0ctober
novel
02/at_ webl002-8reenburg.html>.
2 These Include James McDonald In 1967, Milton Foster In 1968, and Peter Wolle In 1970; Wolfe also
Duchene,Anne. Rev.of A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. Manchester Guardian1
examines the destructive effects of the Army on Leper, the first to enlist. Later, In 1986, Kathy Piehl
concludes her 1986 article with the foUowlng observation: "'The relentless way In which the school-
May 1959:6. Rpt. In Book Review Digest. Ed. Dorothy P. Davison. New York:
Wilson, 1961.
boy world of Devon Is changed during a single year demonstrates the coming of war In a graphic
way. Relying on and transforming traditions of the school story, Knowles Is able to explore the Ferguson, Christopher Matthew. "Acknowledging the HomosexUal Elephant in A
conflicts arising naturaUy from the school setting and also those imposed upon an adolescent SeparatePeace."Unpublished paper. 12 Oct. 2004.
society by the larger world beyond Devon's walls" (74).
Foster, Milton P. "Levels of Meaning in A Separate Peace." English Record 18 (Apr.
3 In her 1967article on "The Theme of Freedom In A SeparatePeaa,' Franzlska Lynne Greillng
1968): 34-40. Rpt. in Karson, 89-96.
argues that Finny, In faC\."represents Greek Ideas more than OIrIstian" (48)because he respects
the freedom of the Individual and the striving toward individual exceUence.Greillng points out Grel1ing, Franziska Lynne. "The Theme of Freedom in A SeparatePeace." English
that Finny's preference for Individuality over rules Is definitely more Greek than OIrIstian as welL Journal 56.9 (Dec. 1967): 1269-72. Rpt. in Bloom, 45-50.
He breaks rules frequently, but he also breaks a swimming record for the joy of excelling. not for Hughes, Dean. Soldier Boys. New York: Atheneum, 2001.
fame: he pledges Gene to secrecy about the feal Still, as GreI1ingnotes, Finny Is not the perfect Karson, Jill, ed. Readings on A Separate Peace. San Diego: Greenhaven, 1999.
Greek, since he fails to excellnteUectuaUy and EaiIsto know himself, an accompUshment at which
Kempton, Sally. "DeVries, Auchinc1oss, Knowles, O'Hara, All Doing Their
most readers agree Gene succeeds-in spite of, or more likely because of, Finny.
· See, for example, Moynahan and Piazza, both In 1981. Thing." New York Times Book Review 24 Nov. 1968: 4. Rpt in Contemporary
Literary Criticism. Ed. Jean C. Stine. Vol. 26. Detroit: Gale, 1983.258.
Knowles, John. Double Vision. New York: Macmillan, 1964.
Works Cited -. A SeparatePeace.New York: Dell/Macmillan, 1961.
Lemay, Harding. "Two Boys and a War Within." New York Herald Tribune Book
Review 6 Mar. 1960: 6.
Aitken, Douglas. Rev. of A SeparatePeace,by John Knowles. San Francisco
Chronicle 26 June 1960: 29. Rpt. in Book Review Digest. Ed. Dorothy P. McDonald, James L. "The Novels of John Knowles." Arizona Quarterly 23 (Winter
Davison. New York: Wilson, 1961. 1967): 335-42. Rpt. in Bloom, 51-58.
Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical Interpretations of John Knowles's A Separate McDonald, Walter R. "Heroes Never Learn Irony in A SeparatePeace." Iowa English
Peace. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2000. Bulletin Yearbook22 (1972): 33-36. Rpt. in Karson, 72-77.
Bryant, Hallman Bell. "Phineas's Pink Shirt in John Knowles' A SeparatePeace." McGavran, James Holt. "Fear's Echo and Unhinged Joy: Crossing Homosocial
Notes on Contemporary Literature 14.5 (1984): 5-6.
Boundaries inA SeparatePeace."Children's Literature 30 (2002):67-80.
-. A SeparatePeace:TheWarWithin. Boston: Twayne, 1990. Mellard,JamesM. "Counterpointand DoubleVisionin A SeparatePeace." Studies_

-. Understanding A Separate Peace. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2002. in Short Fiction 4.1 (Fall 1966): 127-34.Rpt. in Bloom, 37-44.
Butler,Judith. BodiesThatMatter: On theDiscursiveLimits of Sex.NewYork: Mengeling. Marvin. "A Separate Peace: Meaning and Myth." English Joumal_58.9
(Dec. 1969): 1322-29.
Routledge, 1993.
-. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, Moynahan, Julian. "More Trouble at Devon SchooL" Rev. of PeaceBreaks Out, by John
1990. Knowles. New York Times BookReview_ 22 Mar. 1981: 3, 37.

Cart, Michael. "Honoring Their Stories, Too: Literature for Gay and Lesbian Myers, Walter Dean. Fallen Angels. New York: Scholastic, 1988.
Teens." ALAN Review 25:1 (Fall 1997): 40-45.
Postscript 20

Piazza, Paul. "A School for Scandal." Rev. of PeaceBreaks Out, by John Knowles.
Washington Post Book World 15 Mar. 1981: 8.
Piehl,Kathy. "GeneForresterand TomBrown:A Separate Peaceas SchoolStory."
Children's Literature in Education 14.2 (Summer 1983): 67-74.
Raven, Simon. "No Time for War." Rev. of A Separate Peace by John Knowles. The
Spectator 1 May 1959: 630. .
Sarotte, Georges-Michel. Like a Brother, Like a Lover: Male Homosexuality in theAmerican
Novel and Theaterfrom Herman Melville to JamesBaldwin. Trans. Richard Miller.
Garden City: Anchor/Doubleday, 1978.
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. BetweenMen: English Literature and Male Homosocial
Desire. New York: Columbia UP, 1985.
-. Epistemology of the Closet. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.
"A SeparatePeaceInterview:' From" A Separate Peace: 1942 & 1972." Ingenue
Nov. 1972. Rpt. on Starring Parker Stevensonweb page, by Janet Sabrina. 19
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