HOLLOWAY, Mark 1917-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born October 10, 1917, in London, England; died February 20, 2004, in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. Author. Holloway was best known for his books Heavens on Earth and Norman Douglas: A Biography. An adopted child, his name was changed to Holloway from the original Frederic Armstrong. His early life had further ups and downs, including the suicide of his adoptive father. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he edited the university paper, Granta, and was active in the Communist Party and the Drama Society. After earning his B.A. in English literature in 1940, he joined the Royal Navy but soon declared himself a conscientious objector. This resulted in his being placed in a variety of civilian jobs, including as a farmer, forester, and hospital worker. With the war over, he returned to school to complete his master's degree in 1948. He found work building scenery for the Players' Theater and later was employed writing book reviews and working for a bookseller until the mid 1950s. Holloway began to find his niche by then as a nonfiction author, beginning with Heavens on Earth: Utopian Communities in America, 1680-1880 (1951; 2nd edition, 1966). Other titles by Holloway include William Harvey, 1578-1657 (1957), and Norman Douglas (1976). He was also the author of poetry collected in the volumes Poems (1956) and Ten Poems (1969). Holloway's last book was John Gawsworth and the Island Kingdom of Redonda (2002).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Independent, March 31, 2004, p. 35.