Edward Stephens

Life
1888-1955; b. Dublin, nephew of J. M. Synge, he grew up beside the Synge family house at Crosswaithe Park; became a lawyer and served as Sec. to Irish Constitution Committee; appt. Assistant Registrar of Supreme Court, and Registrar of Court of Criminal Appeal; prepared typescript biography of J. M. Synge from papers received at the death of Synge’s brother Edward in 1939; commenced to condense this work, running to 3,297pp., on his retirement in 1950; the task was resumed by David Greene after his death and published as J. M. Synge 1871-1909 (1959), becoming the standard work; further extracts from the typescript were edited by Andrew Carpenter as My Uncle John, Edward Stephens’s Life of J. M. Synge (1974).

Works
David Greene & and Edward Stephens, J. M. Synge (NY: Macmillan 1959), xiv+321pp.; Andrew Carpenter as My Uncle John, Edward Stephens’s Life of J. M. Synge (OUP 1974), xviii+222pp.

[ top ]