born Aug. 14, 1867, Kingston Hill, Surrey, Eng.
died Jan. 31, 1933, Grove Lodge, Hampstead
English novelist and playwright.
Galsworthy gave up a law career to become a writer, and many of his works have legal themes. He published several works before The Man of Property (1906), the first novel of The Forsyte Saga (completed 1922). The family chronicle by which he is chiefly remembered, it consists of three novels linked by two interludes. He continued the story of the Forsytes in three further novels collected in A Modern Comedy (1929). His plays, written in a naturalistic style, usually examine a controversial ethical or social problem; they include The Silver Box (1906), Strife (1909), Justice (1910), and Loyalties (1922). He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932.