Life
1905-1981; b. Cork; self-educated, by his own account; horse and
hounds man; first published fiction and drama [?] in Irish Statesman.
WORKS, plays, Throng o’ Scarlet (London: Constable 1941),
The 19th Hole of Europe (London: Secker & Warburg 1943), and
etc.. Novels, The Peacock is a Gentleman (NY: Dial 1941); The
Squire of Shaftesbury Avenue (London: Constable [1941]); The Chinese
Room (NY: BC Hoffman, Dial [1942?] 1943); The Golden Sleep
(NY: Dial 1948); A Man of Parts (NY: Fawcett 1950); Hounds of
Cloneen (NY: Dial 1951); September in Quinze (London: Hutchinson
1952). DIW IF OCIL
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Commentary
ANJ, Anglo-Irish Lit. p. 241, ‘The literary qualities may
be called in doubt ... but of their popular success there can be no doubt, The Chinese Room (1943) [an open treatment of sex] being
the most typical and successful; also plays and stories, first appearing
in the Irish Statesman.
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References
Robert Hogan, ed., A Dictionary of Irish Literature (Dublin:
Gill & Macmillan 1979), gives details: b. Cork, travelled on Continent
at age of 30, lived in Sussex and Sicily; settled South of France; first
story published by AE in The Irish Statesman; play include The
Nineteenth Hole of Europe (1943). Novel, The Chinese Room (1943),
with autobiographical note on jacket recount learning to read and write
from father, and informal education in pubs and hurling fields; carried
horn for several packs of hounds, and running experiences explaining unflagging
tenacity as a writer. Obviously autobiographical hero of The Gold Sleep (1948) finishes novel in 2 months flat; compared to Donn Byrne; chinese
Room called Lawrence emphemised; stereotypical characters; ‘surging
of genertic love that left his body now quivering like a seismograph and
his soul riding out on midnight air. [bibl as supra] This is a long, damning,
rather ugly notice. NOTE DIL Bibl. varies from DIL text in dating The
Chinese Room at 1942, poss. 1st ed.; DIW dates Peacock is A Gentleman
at 1953. DIW adds Corinna Lang, Goodbye (1954), and The Naked
Rich [n.d.].
Desmond Clarke, Ireland in Fiction [Pt. II] (Cork: Royal Carbery 1985), lists The Hounds of Cloneen (1951), set in Cork; Clarke Brown, English gunnery subaltern, comes to Ireland and leaves his snob wife in favour of Irish horses, hounds, and hunting, while the M.F.H. gets rids of his English wife likewise. The M.F.H. gets tipsy and sits the housemaid on his knee. Very ‘mist does be on the bogs’ [Clarke].
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