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C.P. Snow

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Author

The Resume

    (October 15, 1905-July 1, 1980)
    Born in Leicester, England, United Kingdom
    Birth name was Charles Percy Snow
    Chemist and novelist
    UK Civil Service Commissioner (1945-60)
    Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Technology (1964-66)
    Best-known novels were the 'Strangers and Brothers' series: 'George Passant' (1940), 'The Light and the Dark' (1947), 'Time of Hope' (1949), 'The Masters' (1951), 'The New Men' (1954), 'Homecomings' (1956), 'The Conscience of the Rich' (1958), 'The Affair' (1959), 'Corridors of Power' (1963), 'The Sleep of Reason' (1968) and 'Last Things' (1970)
    Wrote the non-fiction works 'The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution' (1959) and 'The Two Cultures and a Second Look' (1963)
    Knighted (1957)
    Named a life peer (1964)

Why he might be annoying:

    He and a colleague announced they had developed a way to synthesize vitamin A.... and soon had to make an equally public withdrawal of the claim after discovering an error (1932).
    His brother said, 'The trauma of all that publicity put Charles off scientific research irrevocably.'
    His lecture (and subsequent essay) 'The Two Cultures,' about the gulf between science and the humanities, overshadowed his novels.
    An assessment of the flaws in his novels by 'The Guardian': 'He 'tells' rather than 'shows'; much of his dialogue is almost literally unspeakable; his characters are wooden and stereotypical.'
    He was convinced that controversy over 'The Two Cultures' was the only thing that kept him from winning the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was a scientific adviser to the British government during World War II.
    He was on the Nazis' 'Black List' of public figures to be rounded up by the Gestapo after a successful invasion of Britain.
    The Times Literary Supplement included 'The Two Cultures' on its list of the 100 most influential books since WWII.
    The Times of London wrote that he 'occupied a position in English life such as no other author has held since H.G. Wells and Arnold Bennett.'
    He said, 'A scientist has to be neutral in his search for the truth, but he cannot be neutral as to the use of that truth when found. If you know more than other people, you have more responsibility, rather than less.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 88.89% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 5 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying