Boston College
John J. Burns Library
Archives and Manuscripts
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
617-552-4861
Fax: 617-552-2465
www.bc.edu/burns
Descriptive Summary
| Creator: | O'Faoláin, Seán, 1900- |
|---|---|
| Title: | Seán O'Faoláin papers, 1926-1969 |
| Call Number: | MS86-66, MS86-180, MS89-14, MS90-6, MS03-28 |
| Extent: | .75 linear ft. (2 boxes) |
| Abstract: | Collection of material relating to Irish author Seán O'Faoláin including correspondence, manuscripts, and clippings. |
Administrative Information
Restrictions on access
Unrestricted access.
Source
Unknown and Purchase
Citation
[after identification of item(s)], Seán O'Faoláin papers, Archives and Manuscripts, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.
Collection Description
Biographical Note
Sean O'Faolain was born John Whelan on February 22, 1900, in Cork, the youngest of three boys. He attended the Presentation Brothers secondary school in Cork and later University College, Cork, where he received his B.A. in modern literature. In 1917, a visit to Gougane Barra, the valley west of Cork in the heart of the Gaeltacht region, and his sympathies with the republicans moved him to Gaelicize his name and to join the Irish Republican Army (IRA). He served as an "irregular" for six years, an experience which provided him with his first literary theme - the tension between fear and the need for liberty.
Between 1921 and the outbreak of civil war, O'Faolain worked as a traveling book salesman, a job allowing him to wander through and observe the Irish countryside. However, in 1922, he returned to the IRA , worked in a bomb shop, and was appointed director of publicity for the Dublin division. Disaffection with the republican cause - a sense that one tyranny was simply replacing another - resulted in his resignation from the IRA. He returned to Cork, reenrolled in the University for an M.A. in English, taught at a Christian Brothers school in Ennis for a year, obtained a second M.A. in Irish, and published his first short story, "Lilliput," in The Irish Statesman, which won him the Harkness Commonwealth Fellowship to study in the United States. In 1926 he set out for Harvard University to study philology under George Lyman Kitteredge and lived in Bohemian penury in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was joined by his fiancée, Eileen Gould, in 1927. They married and then left for London in 1929, where O'Faolain taught at St. Mary's College while completing his first collection of stories, Midsummer Night Madness.
In 1933, he and Eileen and their baby daughter, Julia, returned to Ireland, settling in Wicklow, where he freelanced for The Spectator and The New Statesman while he worked on his first novel, A Nest of Simple Folk. O'Faolain later established one of Ireland's finest literary magazines, The Bell. In the six years he was editor and manager of this publication, he encouraged and coached many young Irish writers, including Brendan Behan, James Plunkett, and Bryan MacMahon.
O'Faolain's works, whether they are his carefully crafted short stories, his novels, his literary criticisms, or even his travel books, attest to his lifelong humanitarian and rational habit of mind and further express his firm belief that a watery-eyed nostalgia for a mythic past is the one obstacle preventing Ireland from joining the modern world. O'Faolain's views grew out of a "tough love" for a country in which he saw so much potential and so much self-destruction.
In retirement, O'Faolain lived with Eileen in Dun Laoghaire, watched his daughter become an accomplished writer, and continued to read, write, and encourage young writers. In 1989, he entered Alcare House, a nursing home in Dublin, where he died after a brief illness in 1991.
Lynch, M. Kelly. "Sean O'Faolain." Dictionary of Irish Literature Revised and Expanded Edition M-Z. Ed. Robert Hogan. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996. 957-962.
Arrangement Note
Organized into five series: (1) Corrected typescripts from "Tales and Stories," (2) Correspondence to and from Sean O'Faolain, (3) Julia O'Faolain's Comments on Rosebud, (4) Correspondence to Edward Garnett and others, and (5) Photocopies of clippings about Vive Moi!
Selected Search Terms
Personal Names
Connolly, Brendan C. 1913-
Fetridge, Robert.
Garnett, Edward, 1868-1937.
O'Faolain, Julia.
O'Faolain, Julia--Manuscripts.
O'Faoláin, Seán, 1900- --Correspondence.
O'Faoláin, Seán, 1900- --Manuscripts.
Powers, J. F. (James Farl), 1917-
Shaw, Bernard, 1856-1950.
Yeats, W. B. (William Butler), 1865-1939.
Topical Terms
Authors, Irish--20th century--Correspondence.
Authors, Irish--20th century--Manuscripts.
Poets, Irish--20th century--Correspondence.