Frank oconnor history

Irish writer

This article is about the writer. For other people, see Frank O'Connor (disambiguation).

"Michael O'Donovan" redirects here. For the psychiatric genetics researcher, see Michael C. O'Donovan.

Frank O'Connor (born Michael Francis O'Donovan; 17 September 1903 – 10 March 1966) was an Irish author and translator. He wrote poetry (original and translations from Irish), dramatic works, memoirs, journalistic columns and features on aspects of Irish culture and history, criticism, long and short fiction (novels and short stories), biography, and travel books. He is most widely known for his more than 150 short stories and for his memoirs. The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award was named in his honour.

Early life

Raised in Cork, he was the only child of Minnie (née O'Connor) and Michael O'Donovan. He attended Saint Patrick's School on Gardiner's Hill. One teacher, Daniel Corkery, introduced O'Connor's class to the Irish language and poetry and deeply influenced the young pupil. He later attended North Monastery Christian Brothers School.

O'Connor's early life was marked by his father's alcoholism, debt, and ill-treatment of his mother. His childhood was strongly shaped by his mother, who supplied much of the family's income by cleaning houses, and his father was unable to keep steady employment due to alcoholism. O'Connor adored his mother and was bitterly resentful of his father. In his memoirs, he recalled his childhood as "those terrible years", and admitted that he had never been able to forgive his father for his abuse of himself and his mother. When his mother was seventy, O'Connor was horrified to learn from his own doctor that she had suffered for years from chronic appendicitis, which she had endured with great stoicism, as she had never had the time nor the money to see a doctor.

Irish nationalism

In 1918 O'Connor joined the First Brigade of the Irish Republican Army and served in combat during the Iri

Frank O’Connor (born Michael Francis O'Connor O'Donovan) (September 17, 1903 – March 10, 1966) was an Irish author of over 150 works, who was best known for his short stories and books of memoirs. Born an only child in Cork (city), Ireland, to Minnie O'Connor and Michael O'Donovan, his early life was marked by his father's alcoholism, debt, and ill-treatment of his mother. While his works treat a wide range of subjects, they bear witness to the breakdown of relationships in the modern world.

Biography

Frank O'Connor was raised in an extremely chaotic environment in which his only refuge was his mother, Minnie. While his father was an addicted drunkard who could not refrain from exceeding all credit limits, O'Connor's mother took full responsibility of the household and supported the family single-handedly. In addition, O'Connor's father berated him with derogatory comments toward his masculinity. His father found it outlandish that instead of wrestling, Frank preferred to read. As a result, O'Connor's writing is scarred with the stains of his tumultuous childhood.

He has recounted the early years of his life in one of his best books, An Only Child, a memoir not published until 1961, but which had the immediacy of a precocious diary. In fact, writing and books were his safe haven from the terrifying family life he was forced to endure. In the process, O'Connor successfully taught himself French and German, which reaped great rewards for him as he would go on to write over 150 short stories.

In 1914, he attended St. Patrick's National School under tutelage of Corkery. In 1918, he joined the First Brigade of the Irish Republican Army in its resistance to British rule. He opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, and took the Anti-Treaty side in the ensuing Irish Civil War. He worked in a small propaganda unit in Cork City. O'Connor was subsequently among the twelve thousand anti-Treaty Irish Repu

American actor, rancher, painter, and husband of Ayn Rand (1897–1979)

For the actor and director born in the 1880s, see Frank O'Connor (director).

Charles Francis "Frank" O'Connor (September 22, 1897 – November 7, 1979) was an American actor, painter, and rancher and the husband of novelist Ayn Rand. Frank O'Connor performed in several films, typically as an extra, during the silent and early sound eras. While working on the set of the 1927 film The King of Kings, O'Connor met Rand, and they eventually dated each other steadily. They married in 1929. When O'Connor and Rand moved to California so Rand could work on the movie adaptation of her novel The Fountainhead, O'Connor purchased and managed a ranch in the San Fernando Valley for several years. In addition to raising numerous flora and fauna on the ranch, he there developed the Lipstick and Halloween hybrids of Delphinium and Gladiolus.

After the couple moved to New York City in 1951, he took up painting and became a member of the Art Students League of New York. He provided the cover art for some of Rand's published work after this time. Rand attributed to O'Connor inspiration for some of the themes and characters in her writing, and he provided the title for her novel Atlas Shrugged.

In 1954, Rand pressured O'Connor into assenting to her having a sexual affair with Nathaniel Branden. The affair deeply troubled O'Connor and lasted until 1968. Late in his life, O'Connor struggled with excessive alcohol consumption. He died in 1979 and

Brought up in poverty, O’Connor became a librarian and a director of Dublin’s Abbey Theatre. He won popularity in the U.S. for short stories in which apparently trivial incidents illuminate Irish life. They appeared in volumes including Guests of the Nation (1931) and Crab Apple Jelly (1944) and in The New Yorker magazine. He also wrote critical studies on Irish life and literature and translations of Gaelic works of the 9th – 20th centuries, including the great 17th-century satire The Midnight Court (1945).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Short story collections
Guests of the Nation (1931), including the famous title story
Bones of Contention (1936), including the story “The Majesty of Law”, a short story adapted as an episode of the 1957 film The Rising of the Moon.
Crab Apple Jelly (1944)
The Common Chord (1947)
Traveller’s Samples (1951), including the classic story “First Confession”
The Stories of Frank O’Connor (1952), including the first publication of perhaps his most popular story “My Oedipus Complex”
More Stories by Frank O’Connor (1954)
Domestic Relations (1957)
A Set of Variations (1969)
The Cornet Player Who Betrayed Ireland (1981)
The Collected Stories (Edited by Richard Ellmann) (1981)
The Collar: Stories of Irish Priests (1993)
A Frank O’Connor Reader (1994)

Novels
The Saint and Mary Kate (1932)
Dutch Interior (1940)
Autobiography
An Only Child (1961)
My Father’s Son (1968)
Poetry from the Irish
The Wild Bird’s Nest (1932)
Lament for Art O’Leary (1940)
The Midnight Court (1945)
Kings, Lords, and Commons (1959)
The Little Monasteries (1963)
Irish history
The Big Fellow, biography of Michael Collins (1937)
Travel writing
Irish Miles (1947)
Leinster, Munster and Connaught (1950)

Criticism
The Road to Stratford, U.S. Title: Shakespeare’s Progress (196l)
The Mirror in the Roadway: A Study of the Modern Novel (1956)
The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story (1962)
The Backward Look: A Survey of Irish Lit