John Wain; Novelist and Biographer of Samuel Johnson

John Wain, 69, novelist, poet and the author of an award-winning biography of Samuel Johnson. Wain’s first novel, “Hurry on Down,” published in 1953, made his reputation. His widely acclaimed 1974 biography, “Samuel Johnson,” brought him the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Heinemann Award. Wain was made professor of poetry at Oxford University in 1973, a post he held for five years. His fiction includes “Strike the Father Dead,” “Young Shoulders” in 1982, which won the Whitbread prize, and “Where the Rivers Meet.” Volumes of poetry include “A Word Carved on a Sill” and “Open Country.” He also worked as a critic, editor and anthologist and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1984. In Oxford, England, on Tuesday of the complications of a stroke.