Talk:John Collier (fiction writer)

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A fantasy short story about a cat who's fed talking birds and can eventually talk?

please write in!

This was quite confusing to read, anonymous commentator, but if you wish to open a new section on one of his short stories then append it to the existing section on notable works. If you are unaware of how to do that, then quite simply state the short story name and have a more experienced wikipedian do it for you ;) --Klopsikon (talk) 01:40, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

Middle Name

I've read several of Collier's works, but never have I seen any reference to his middle name being "Henry". Does anyone have citation for this? In any case, I was considering renaming the page "John Collier (writer)" rather than "John Henry Collier", since all of his published works are attributed to him as "John Collier". If anyone can find a book that is attributed to him as being by "John Henry Collier", I will reconsider moving the page. Johnny Panic

• Go ahead and do it. I have no idea whether "Henry" is correct, but he is known as "John Collier" and the naming convention says to use the most common name. I've been meaning to do this myself. It was originally under "John Collier" and someone moved it, apparently because they thought the painter was more famous and deserved to go there. Dpbsmith (talk) 17:32, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

• • I had "John Collier" redirect to a disambiguation page... might not have been the best way to go, but it's done now and I'm too lazy to change it back. If anyone can think of a better way to do it... Johnny Panic

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101061438/) and the Fiction Mags Index (see http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/d431.htm) give his full name as John Henry Noyes Collier, so I am about to put that in the article; however, as he always wrote as simply "John Collier", that should certainly remain the page heading.Paulannis (talk) 16:05, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

The 1911 English census has his full name as John Henry Noyes Collier. However his sister is listed as Kathleen Mary Collier which leads me to believe that Noyes, his mothers maiden name, is a middle name and not a surname. He is my 1st cousin 2x removed. Garyamarshall (talk) 23:33, 10 September 2016 (UTC)

Rewrite

I think I'm going to totally rewrite the section of this page that starts with: "His stories may be broadly classified as fantasies, but are really sui generis..." Hopefully I won't be stepping on anyone's toes by doing that... it's servicable, but it doesn't really grab you and hold your interest the way that it should. For instance, the "Over Insurance" sample doesn't quite do it for me. To give it a bit more verve, I'll be borrowing heavily from Ray Bradbury's introduction to "Fancies and Goodnight", and Anthony Burgess' introduction to "The Best of John Collier".

Oh, and I'll also be expanding the "Hollywood" section.

So, if there are no objections... Johnny Panic

Go ahead, I don't see anybody's jimmies getting rustled(and I would have to agree the beginning is quite dry). Speaking about rewriting and revising...

>read my update below<

As a side note I may add my own complaint in here. A rather interesting and useful quote is given from a certain "Betty Richardson". I haven't the faintest clue who she is even after researching her name, so I would like the original author of that quote, or someone with a handy access to the source, to enlighten the casual reader of this article with a tiny mention as to her identity, seeing as, I'm sure you are aware, the opinion of someone who is famous, is infinitely more valuable than a nobody :)

UPDATE: It seems I've been an idiot and haven't red that Betty Richardson was in fact his biographer. My apologies. --Klopsikon (talk) 01:36, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

Bibliography

I have commenced a tidy-up of the Bibliography section:

• Cite templates will be used where possible.
• Tables may be used to organise short stories, poems and/or book reviews.
• I prefer capitalization and punctuation to follow the standard cataloguing rules in AACR2 and RDA, rather than "title case".
• Links (either direct or indirect) to potentially unreliable or incomplete digitised copies and to booksellers may be removed.

This is a work in progress; feel free to continue. Sunwin1960 (talk) 06:04, 2 May 2023 (UTC)