Manuscript Collection Number: 099 F623
Accessioned: Purchase, February 1999.
Extent: 11 items.
Content: Letters and postcards.
Access: The collection is open for research.
Processed: September 1999 by Devin Harner.
He eventually was graduated from the National University of Ireland with a B.A. in 1921, and an M.A. in 1925. From 1927 to 1929 O'Faoláin completed an M.A. at Harvard on a Commonwealth Fellowship to study Yeats's manuscripts. While in Cambridge, O'Faoláin made the acquaintance of John and Mary Marshall. His wife, Eileen, taught elementary school with Mrs. Marshall, and John Marshall was involved in the Mediaeval Academy of America, and with the publication of their journal, Speculum, in Cambridge.
Ten letters and postcards in this collection were written by O'Faoláin to the Marshalls from 1930-1958. They include details of O'Faoláin's daily routine and of his current projects, as well as the logistics of the Marshalls' trip to Ireland. An eleventh letter was written by Mary Marshall to her friend "Becky" on 9 January 1934, and includes details of how the Marshalls came to know the O'Faoláins.
After leaving Harvard, O'Faoláin served as a lecturer in English at Princeton University (1929); Boston College (1929); and St. Mary's College, Strawberry Hill, England (1929-1933) before returning to Ireland.
Widely recognized for his novels and short stories, O'Faoláin filled his writing with images of modern Irish life, examining what it meant to be Irish Catholic. His letters to Marshall address such themes as well.
Both his novels and short stories have received critical acclaim as well as being widely popular. His first published collection of short stories, Midsummer Night Madness and Other Stories (1932), received a Femina Prize nomination in 1932. O'Faoláin continued to compose numerous short stories throughout his life, contributing to journals and popular magazines, such as Colliers, McCall's, and Playboy, and culminating in his Collected Stories in 1980.
In addition to writing short stories and novels, O'Faoláin authored biographies of Eamon de Valera, Constance Markievicz, Daniel O'Connell, Hugh O'Neill, John Henry Newman, as well as his own autobiography titled Vive Moi! (1964). He was also responsible for establishing the Irish journal, The Bell, in 1940, and he worked as its editor until 1945.
Seán O'Faoláin died April 20, 1991, in Dublin, Ireland.
Metzger, Linda (ed.) Contemporary Authors. New Revision Series, Vol. 12. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1984. pp. 349- 351.
Trosky, Susan M. (ed.) Contemporary Authors. Vol. 134. Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1992. p. 377.
Letters to the Marshalls
F623 1930 10 Jun ACS 1p
11 Oct ALS 3p
19 Dec ALS 1p
NOTE: with envelope
1934 Feb TLS 1p
NOTE: with envelope
[1934] Thursday TLS 2p
1935 1 Oct TLS 4p
1954 25 Jul ACS 1p
1958 11 Jun ALS 2p
[n.d.] C 1p
NOTE: Christmas Greeting Card
[n.d.] ALS 4p
Letter from Mary Marshall to "Becky"
1934 9 Jan ALS 3p
Back to the UD Special Collections Home Page
Return to List of Manuscript Finding Aids by Title