Exeter was, I suspect, more crucial in my life than in the lives of most members of my class, and conceivably, than in the lives of almost anyone else who ever attended the school.

He attended St. Early in Knowles's career he wrote for the Hartford Courant and was assistant editor for Holiday magazine while he concurrently began writing novels of which he eventually completed seven. In his home town Knowles’ father was the vice president of a coal company and they received a steady income affording them a decent standard of living.

John Knowles (September 16 1926 – November 29 2001) was an American novelist best known for his novel A Separate Peace. He died in 2001 at the age of 75.