The Best of Frank O'Connor Read online

  1943 Travel ban rescinded (John Betjeman had successfully approached the Censorship Board for aid). Returns to London in the autumn. Refused work in Radio Eireann. A Picture Book with illustrations by Elizabeth Rivers published by Cuala Press, Dublin. Begins publishing controversial articles under the pseudonym Ben Mayo in the Independent newspaper. Bowen: Seven Winters.

  1944 Spends much time in England working for the BBC. Crab Apple Jelly (stories) published by Macmillan, London, and Knopf, New York. Meets and falls in love with Joan Knape, one of a group of English friends who meet after work. Eliot: Four Quartets. Sartre: Huis clos.

  1945 Birth of Oliver, Michael and Joan’s son. Translates The Midnight Court, a long poem in Irish by Brian Merriman, published by Fridberg, London/Dublin. First story, ‘News for the Church’, published in the New Yorker magazine. Beginning of long association with the New Yorker. Waugh: Brideshead Revisited. Orwell: Animal Farm. Betjamin: New Bats in Old Belfries.

  HISTORICAL EVENTS

  North African campaign. Gandhi calls on British to ‘Quit India.

  Allied invasion of Italy.

  Allied (D-Day) landings in Normandy. Liberation of Paris.

  Mussolini shot by partisans. Unconditional surrender of Germany. De Valera offers condolences to Germany on the death of Hitler. Atomic bombs dropped on Japan. End of World War II. Nationalists in the North form Anti-Partition League. Sean O’Kelly becomes Irish President. Period of rapid inflation in the South. Labour party under Atlee sweeps to victory in UK. United Nations formed.

  DATE AUTHOR’S LIFE LITERARY CONTEXT

  1946 Birth of Owen, Michael and Evelyn’s son. Selected Stories published by Fridberg, Dublin. The Midnight Court banned in Ireland. ‘Judas’ (story) translated into French, published in La France Libre. Series of literary talks for Leeds BBC.

  1947 Irish Miles (travel book) published by Macmillan, London. The Common Chord (stories) also published by Macmillan and banned in Ireland. Book reviews in various English journals. Two stories in New Yorker; one in Harper’s Bazaar. Continues to work for BBC. Loans a cottage in Lyme Regis where he instals his mother, wife and children, visiting them at weekends. Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire.

  Maugham: Creatures of Circumstance.

  Mann: Doctor Faustus.

  1948 Death of W. B. Yeats. The Road to Stratford (Shakespearean criticism) published by Methuen, London. Numerous broadcasts for BBC in London and Belfast. Trip to Denmark to give talk. Sean O’Faolain: The Man Who Invented Sin. Mailer: The Naked and the Dead.

  Greene: The Heart of the Matter.

  1949 Separates from wife, Evelyn, in August. Lives in Lyme Regis and London with various friends. Spends Christmas in Avignon where he writes My Oedipus Complex. Two stories in New Yorker, one in Penguin New Writing No. 37. Many broadcasts in BBC series The Critics. Granted legal separation. O’Casey: Cock-a-Doodle Dandy. Bowen: The Heat of the Day. A. Miller: Death of a Salesman. Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-four.

  1950 Lives with Joan and son Oliver in Dublin. Leinster, Munster and Connaught (travel book), Robert Hale, London. Three stories in New Yorker, one in Harper’s Bazaar, one in Today’s Woman, one in Evening News. Reads stories on BBC Northern Ireland. Highsmith: Strangers on a Train. Death of Shaw.

  HISTORICAL EVENTS

  USSR extends influence in Eastern Europe. Beginning of Cold War.

  Marshall Plan: US aid for European post-war recovery. India and Pakistan achieve independence as two separate dominions.

  De Valera defeated; inter-party government formed in Ireland under John Costello. Soviet blockade of Berlin and Allied airlift. Communist coup in Czechoslovakia. State of Israel established. South African government adopts apartheid as official policy. Assassination of Gandhi.

  Republic of Ireland Act passed. Eire withdraws from the Commonwealth and becomes fully independent. Attempts by Eire government to negotiate union with the North firmly resisted by Unionist Prime Minister Basil Brooke. Britain passes Ireland Act, recognizing the Republic but guaranteeing that the North will remain part of the UK unless its parliament decides otherwise. NATO founded (Irish Republic declines to join as Northern Ireland remains part of the UK). Federal Republic of Germany established. Communist Revolution in China.

  Economic depression in the Republic throughout the 1950s; emigration increases. Korean War (to 1953).

  DATE AUTHOR’S LIFE LITERARY CONTEXT

  1951 Moves to Lyme Regis with mother, Joan and Oliver. Traveller’s Samples (stories) published by Macmillan, London, and Knopf, New York. Banned by Censorship Board. Court case to decide custody of chidren. Six broadcasts for BBC. Stories in Evening News, Cornhill Magazine, John Bull and American Mercury. Beckett: Molloy; Malone Dies. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye. Styron: Lie Down in Darkness. Powell: A Dance to the Music of Time (to 1975).

  1952 Visits USA to lecture on Anglo-Irish literature and creative writing at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois (where he stays with Richard Ellman and family) and later Harvard. The Stories of Frank O’Connor published by Knopf, New York. Death of mother (November). Meets Harriet Rich, a mature literature student from Maryland. Controversial article about Ireland in Holiday Magazine. Five stories in New Yorker. Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea. Waugh: Sword of Honour trilogy (to 1961).

  1953 Returns to USA to teach at University of Chicago, Northwestern and Harvard. Divorce made final in April. Buys small Elizabethan house (‘Primrose Hill’) in Buckinghamshire. Marries Harriet there in December. Gets custody of son Myles who lives there with them. The Stories of Frank O’Connor, Hamish Hamilton, London. Beckett: Waiting for Godot; Watt; The Unnamable. Bellow: The Adventures of Augie March.

  Salinger: Nine Stories. Borges: Labyrinths.

  1954 Returns to USA in autumn and lives in apartment in Brooklyn Heights with Harriet and Myles.

  More Stories by Frank O’Connor, Knopf, New York. Stories in Harper’s Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Atlantic Monthly and four in New Yorker. Behan: The Quare Fellow.

  Kingsley Amis: Lucky Jim. Dylan Thomas: Under Milk Wood.

  Golding: Lord of the Flies.

  HISTORICAL EVENTS

  De Valera returns as Taoiseach of Ireland. Abbey Theatre destroyed by fire. Irish Arts Council set up. India declares itself a Republic within the British Commonwealth. McCarthy’s anti-Communist Committee of Enquiry active in the US.

  Accession of Elizabeth II. Eisenhower is elected US President.

  European Court of Human Rights set up in Strasbourg. Death of Stalin. Hillary and Tenzing reach the summit of Mount Everest.

  Coalition between Fine Gael and Labour party forms government in Eire. Vietnam War begins. Nasser gains power in Egypt.

  DATE AUTHOR’S LIFE LITERARY CONTEXT

  1955 Brooklyn Heights and Annapolis, Maryland. Reviews and articles in various American papers and journals. Four stories in New Yorker. Nabokov: Lolita. Williams: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

  Highsmith: The Talented Mr Ripley.

  1956 The Mirror in the Roadway: A Study of the Modern Novel, Knopf, New York. Vintage edition of Stories, Knopf. Trips to Ireland and England. Reunion with Nancy McCarthy who becomes a friend of the family. Gives talks at various American universities, including Virginia, Stanford, Berkeley and Michigan. Four Province Films takes option on ‘The Majesty of the Law’. Reviews plays for Holiday Magazine. Osborne: Look Back in Anger.

  1957 Domestic Relations (stories) published by Knopf, New York; Hamish Hamilton, London. Makes record about Irish literature for Folkways Records. Film Rising of the Moon includes dramatization of ‘The Majesty of the Law’. Mirror in the Roadway published by Hamish Hamilton, London. Six stories in New Yorker. Edits Modern Irish Short Stories, Oxford Classics. Beckett: Endgame. Hugh Leonard: A Leap in the Dark.Kerouac: On the Road.

  1958 Brooklyn Heights, Annapolis and Dublin. Birth of daughter Harriet (nicknamed ‘Hallie Óg’ (young Hallie). First section of autobiography, An Only Child, published in New Yorker, as well as four stories. TV appearances in N
ew York include The Last Word with Bergen Evans, and Camera Three, reading a story. In Ireland, reads stories on Radio Eireann. Behan: The Hostage; Borstal Boy. Beckett: Krapp’s Last Tape. Johnston: The Scythe and the Sunset.Leonard: Madigan’s Lock. Capote: Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Pinter: The Birthday Party.

  1959 Mespil Flats, Dublin, and Brooklyn Heights. Two more sections of autobiography in New Yorker plus one story. Kings, Lords John B. Keane: Sive. Burroughs: Naked Lunch. Bellow: Henderson the Rain King. Grass: The Tin Drum.

  HISTORICAL EVENTS

  Ireland joins the United Nations. Warsaw Pact formed.

  IRA reorganizes and begins terrorist campaign in Northern Ireland which peters out by 1962. Suez Crisis. Hungarian uprising. Pakistan becomes the world’s first Islamic Republic, but remains within Commonwealth.

  De Valera returned to office. Dublin Theatre Festival founded. Treaty of Rome: European Economic Community founded. Harold Macmillan becomes British Prime Minister. Civil Rights Commission established in US to safeguard voting rights. Ghana and Malaya become independent.

  T. K. Whitaker’s Report on Economic Development.

  De Valera stands down to run for President. Seán Lemass, his former deputy, becomes Taoiseach. Government adopts Whitaker’s recommendations: protectionist policies abandoned and foreign investment encouraged. Castro comes to power in Cuba.

  DATE AUTHOR’S LIFE LITERARY CONTEXT

  1959 cont. and Commons (translations of old Irish poetry) published by Knopf, New York. Banned in Ireland because of inclusion of The Midnight Court. Edits Book of Ireland. Published in the Collins National Anthologies series, London and Glasgow. Talks at NYU and YMHA Poetry Centre. Reads various stories on Radio Eireann and BBC Northern Ireland.

  1960 Brooklyn Heights. Gives talk at Library of Congress. Goes to Copenhagen for Writers’ Conference, where other authors envy his difficult childhood as material for stories. With Liam Clancy produces a reading play about Yeats (called Yeats and Cuchulain) at YMHA Poetry Centre. One story in New Yorker. First mild symptoms of heart failure. Updike: Rabbit, Run. Pinter: The Caretaker. Dahl: Kiss Kiss. Spark: The Ballad of Peckham Rye.

  1961 Palo Alto, California; Mespil Flats and Court Flats, Dublin. Teaches twentieth-century novel and creative writing at Stanford University. Makes Monitor (autobiographical film) with Huw Weldon for BBC. An Only Child, first volume of autobiography, published by Knopf, New York (sells out in six weeks). Kings, Lords and Commons published by Macmillan, London. Suffers slight stroke. Tom Murphy: A Whistle in the Dark. O’Brien: The Hard Life. Heller: Catch-22. Salinger: Franny and Zooey.

  1962 Court Flats, Dublin. Awarded honorary doctorate by Trinity College, Dublin. The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story published by World Publishing Co. Talks at Yeats Summer School, Sligo. Makes debut on newly established Irish television, in a two-part autobiographical programme called Self-Portrait. Brian Friel: The Enemy Within. Nabokov: Pale Fire. Albee: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Solzhenitsyn: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

  HISTORICAL EVENTS

  Sharpeville massacre in South Africa: ANC outlawed. Cyprus and Nigeria achieve independence. Kennedy elected US President.

  The Republic’s attempts to join the EEC fail (finally joins in 1972). Radio Telefis Eireann (RTE) begins television broadcasting. Bay of Pigs invasion. Erection of Berlin Wall. Yuri Gagarin becomes first man in space.

  IRA calls off its ‘Border Campaign’, having failed to gain significant support. Cuban missile crisis.

  DATE AUTHOR’S LIFE LITERARY CONTEXT

  1963 Teaching Irish literature at Trinity College, Dublin. Talks about travel, architecture and the theatre as well as reading his own stories on BBC and Radio Eireann. The Little Monasteries (translations from Irish), limited edition, Dolmen Press, Dublin. My Oedipus Complex and Other Stories, Penguin. Pynchon: V

  Salinger: Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction. Plath: The Bell Jar. Burgess: Inside Mr Enderby.

  1964 Two family trips to France. A series of weekly articles in Sunday Independent (under own name) about neglect of Irish monuments and architecture as well as reviews of books and plays. Reviews and articles in Irish Times and Spectator. Broadcasts for BBC Northern Ireland. Ill on and off during year. Friel: Philadelphia, Here I Come! Bellow: Herzog.

  1965 Operation early in year. Recuperation slow and difficult. Two radio broadcasts, two stories in Saturday Evening Post. Lonely Voice published in Macmillan’s Papermac. Two sections of second volume of autobiography (My Father’s Son) printed in Vogue and Kenyon Review. Heaney: Eleven Poems. John McGahern: The Dark. Keane: The Field. Mailer: An American Dream.

  1966 Completes My Father’s Son (published 1968). New York literary agent sends contract for The Backward Look: A Survey of Irish Literature, published by Macmillan, London, Melbourne, Toronto, 1967. Three articles in Sunday Independent. Prizewinning BBC adaptation of ‘Song Without Words’ produced as Silent Song. Dies of heart attack at home in Court Flats, 10 March. Buried in Dean’s Grange Cemetery, Dublin. MacNeice: Collected Poems. Heaney: Death of a Naturalist. Aidan Higgins: Langrishe, Go Down. Friel: The Loves of Cass McGuire. Leonard: Mick and Mick. Pynchon: The Crying of Lot 49. Capote: In Cold Blood.

  HISTORICAL EVENTS

  Terence O’Neill becomes Prime Minister in Northern Ireland, and seeks greater accommodation with the minority Catholic community. US President John Kennedy visits the Republic. Assassination of Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. Johnson becomes President. Civil war between Greeks and Turks in Cyprus.

  First 5-year economic plan exceeds its goals. The 1960s is a period of increased prosperity; rate of emigration declines. The Campaign for Social Justice launched in Northern Ireland. Khrushchev deposed in Russia. US Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in US. Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Martin Luther King.

  Landmark meetings between O’Neill and Lemass at Stormont and in Dublin. Anglo-Irish trade treaty signed. Lemass introduces free secondary education. War between India and Pakistan. Ian Smith makes Rhodesian Declaration of Independence; Britain declares the regime illegal.

  50th anniversary of the Easter Rising celebrated by Catholics throughout Ireland. Lemass stands down and is replaced as Taoiseach by Jack Lynch. Opening of new Abbey Theatre. In the North, Ian Paisley forms the Ulster Constitution Defence Committee (UCDC) to campaign against O’Neill. He also helps to revive the militant loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force, declaring war on the IRA. Mao launches Cultural Revolution in China.

  ABOUT THE EDITOR

  JULIAN BARNES’S novels include Flaubert’s Parrot, A History of the World in 10½ Chapters and Arthur and George. He has also published collections of short stories and essays and, most recently, a memoir, Nothing to be Frightened of.

  1 WAR

  PREFACE

  WAR WAS the subject which turned Michael O’Donovan into the short story writer Frank O’Connor: war first against the British, then between the Irish in the Civil War. O’Donovan did ‘odd jobs’, as he put it, for the IRA; later, he chose the Republican side against the Irish Free State, and was interned for a year in 1922–23. The opening ten stories (out of fifteen) in his first collection, Guests of the Nation (1931), are all concerned with war.

  Thirty-five years later, in My Father’s Son, his second volume of autobiography, O’Connor looked back dismissingly on Guests of the Nation and on his first novel, The Saint and Mary Kate (1932):

  I still considered myself a poet, and had little notion of how to write a story and none at all of how to write a novel, so they were produced in hysterical fits of enthusiasm, followed by similar fits of despondency, good passages alternating with bad, till I can no longer read them.

  Nor could he bear to reprint them. In later years, he made three separate collections of his stories, totalling 82 of the 150 or so he had published. Yet only two of those first fifteen stories ever made the cut: the title story – which remains one of the most famous fictional accounts of war in the twentieth century –
and the final, non-war story, ‘The Procession of Life’.

  Being an inveterate rewriter, O’Connor unsurprisingly altered these two stories before reprinting them. ‘Guests of the Nation’ is rewritten at a surface, stylistic level, with minor cuts and additions, the elimination of Kiplingesque renderings of Cockney speech, and such adjustments as ‘bugger’ for ‘blighter’. ‘The Procession of Life’, about a Cork dockside encounter between an adolescent boy, a nightwatchman, a woman of the streets and a policeman, is much more drastically changed. All the main characters are altered in character and manner, while Irishisms (‘ponny’, ‘drisheen’, ‘taoscan’ and even the lovely verb ‘connoisseuring’) are suppressed. The original story is shorter, stranger, more hallucinatory, and at one point more directly erotic; the later version gives extra background, supplies motive, is more urbane.

  But the young O’Connor was not, as the mature O’Connor claimed, unskilled to the point of unreadability. The young O’Connor had the freshness and the fire; the mature O’Connor had the savvy and the caution. For me, the two versions of ‘Guests of the Nation’ have equal merits; while the earlier version of ‘The Procession of Life’ is superior. William Maxwell, in the course of an affectionate editorial argument, once told O’Connor, ‘Of course you are right about the story, and I am too.’ So this collection begins – in similarly admiring disagreement – with seven of the war stories, alongside later non-fictional accounts of those times, from his autobiographies and from The Big Fellow, his biography of Michael Collins.