Walter Greenwood is remembered chiefly as the author of Love on the Dole (1933) – a novel which had a wide impact on public perceptions of the intolerable living conditions of the unemployed in the nineteen-thirties. Greenwood came from a poor working-class background in Salford and, after a variety of low-paid jobs, he was unemployed from 1929 till 1933. He wrote Love on the Dole towards the end of this period, and it was unsurprisingly regarded as an authentic account of the misery caused for individuals and communities by long-term unemployment and poverty. The novel sold well and was reprinted many times during the nineteen thirties and nineteen-forties, and has remained in print ever since. Both the literary …
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Citation: Hopkins, Chris. "Walter Greenwood". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 November 2019 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1866, accessed 22 November 2024.]