Short-story writer, novelist, and playwright, born in Cork, Co Cork, S Ireland. From a poor family, he worked as a railway clerk and a librarian, and was imprisoned briefly for his involvement with the IRA. A director of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in the 1930s, he was a visiting professor at several universities in the USA, and became popular for his short stories published in The New Yorker (194561). His volumes include Guests of the Nation (1931), Crab Apple Jelly (1944), and Collected Stories (1981). He also wrote critical studies, and a biography of Michael Collins, The Big Fellow (1937).
(You might also be looking for actor Frank O'Connor, husband of Ayn Rand.)
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.
In 1918 he joined the First Brigade of the Irish Republican Army in its resistance to British rule. He was subsequently among the twelve thousand anti-Treaty Irish Republicans who were interned by the nascent Irish Free State forces, O'Connor's imprisonment being in Gormanstown camp between 1922 and 1923. Following the war, the polyglot O'Connor took various positions including that of Irish teacher and librarian.
He was perhaps Ireland's most complete man of letters, best know for his varied and comprehensive short stories but also a noble literary critic, essayist, travel writer, translator and biographer
From the 1930s to the 1960s he was a prolific writer of short stories, poems, plays, and novellas. His work as an Irish teacher complemented his numerous translations into English of Irish poetry, including his initially banned translation of Cúirt an Mheán Oíche.
Works
Guests of the Nation My Oedipus Complex First Confession An Only Child The Bridal Night The Luceys The Long Road to Ummera The Big Fellow (biography of Michael Collins)and others collected in: O'Connor's Collected Stories, edited by Richard Ellmann (1981)
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