In honor of the major Irish holiday, I wanted to present you with a list of a few Irish authors. This is by no means a comprehensive list. However, in my research for some awesome SF/F Irish-related authors I quickly stumbled on some surprising information. I had no idea these guys were Irish. I had even taken a class on C.S. Lewis at one point, and in my “oh it’s so cool that he was Tolkien’s best friend” haze I had completely wiped from my memory that he was Irish. (It sure puts their squabble about Catholicism into new light, though)
So today I offer you five Irish authors whose origin surprised me.
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)
Although he taught at Cambridge and Oxford in England, and eventually became a regular member of the Church of England, C. S. Lewis was in fact, Irish. He was born and raised in Belfast, Ireland (and was originally baptized Catholic). I don’t believe I need to go into detail about his great contribution to the science fiction world with The Chronicles of Narnia or The Space Trilogy, but they might be worth the mention in case you haven’t heard of them.
Bram Stoker (1847-1912)
The father of the vampire, Dracula, was born in what is now Fairview, Dublin in the coastal district to the north. During his lifetime he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, which Irving owned. Now, however, I don’t think there is anyone who doesn’t equate Stoker to Dracula.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
I include Oscar Wilde because of his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Granted, I personally know him better for his hilarious plays (ok, I find them hilarious), but I will say that The Picture of Dorian Gray disturbed me greatly. In a good way. (The novel was even used as evidence in his trial.) And for that, I will include him as a sci fi writer of great note. Or at least of speculative fiction, or weird fiction, or any other multitude of names that kind of touch on the genre but don’t quite get it right because it is almost uncategorizeable. Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin where he lived much of his young life before being jailed for “gross indecency.” After which he never returned to England or Ireland.
Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany (1878-1957)
He was a prolific fantasy writer, best known for his first collection of fantasy stories, The Gods of Pegana. HIs short stories were very popular and Lord Plunkett is cited as an influence for such illustrious greats as Lovecraft, R.E. Howard, Gaiman, Clarke, Moorcock, Eddings, Le Guin … and a bunch more. He was born in London to the Irish peerage and lived in Dublin. He was part of the Celtic or Irish literary revival at the turn of the century.
Johnathan Swift (1667-1745)
I don’t want to include him because I personally dislike him to a strong degree. However, some professor a long time ago once told me that Gulliver’s Travels was one of the first science fiction novels written. (I also disagree with that, and say it’s allegory. Is Animal Farm sci fi just because it has talking animals? If so, then I’m wrong) ANYWAY, because of that one professor, and because Swift is indeed, (half) Irish, I will include him. He was born in Dublin in 1667.
For a much larger list of Irish authors, check out either Wikipedia’s List (yeah, too easy, I know) or the Irish Writers Online
I knew Wilde, Stoker, and Lewis were Irish, but I didn’t know about the other two. by the by Wilde was also homosexual. Don’t know how many people know that.
Only an Irishman could write such a memorable tale of horror like Stoker did.
Francine
Had no idea Stoker was Irish. Makes him even more interesting.
Oh yes, Wilde’s trial was scandalous. Homosexuality was illegal in Victorian England and Wilde underwent a smear campaign and 3 trials. The outcry for his innocence was loud, and Wilde had many opportunities to flee Britain … but eventually he was sentenced to the maximum penalty of 3 years hard labor. His poems and The Picture of Dorian Gray were held up as evidence of “gross indecency” (His novel is still one of my favorites). The 3 years in prison destroyed him. However, his best friends stood by him through it all and he transfered to Paris after his release. He died 3 years later of meningitis. I particularily like the epitaph on his grave from a poem written post-jail. A verse from The Ballad of Reading Gaol:
And alien tears will fill for him
Pity’s long-broken urn,
For his mourners will be outcast men,
And outcasts always mourn.
Great list. Lewis was a surprise.
Wilde’s trial was indeed a sham. Funny how, as he publicly stated, The Picture of Dorian Gray is actually a thoroughly moral book. While writing it, he feared that its artistic merit would suffer – gasp – because he was hammering the moral points home too hard, in ways that weren’t all that subtle. He was a decadent, of course, championed by Walter Pater, and best represented that literary movement. But in The Picture of Dorian Gray he presents a searing critique of a hedonistic lifestyle, one taken to an extreme and divorced from most orthodox interpretations of morality. It would seem his accusers were not the best literary critics.
Where did you hear that C.S. Lewis was baptized into the Catholic Church at birth, Sue? I’ve read a few biographies on the man, and none of them mentioned a Catholic baptism. It’s true that later, at the end of his life, Lewis was Catholic in all but name (going to confession, ECT). But his failure, as Tolkien put it, to accept a Catholic baptism and enter into full communion with Rome was a sore point in the otherwise intimate relationship between the two men. In a perhaps unexpected twist, Wilde on the other hand converted to Roman Catholicism on his deathbed.
Drew
I guess I was thwarted by my own skimming of his wikipedia article. Sorry, Drew
Oh wait, that smiley face wasn’t for the wars. Just my own wittiness … Oh bother.
RETRACTION: CSLewis was baptized by the Church of Ireland, not the Catholic church.
I suppose when I read “Church of Ireland” I immediately thought Catholic. Not that difficult of an intuitive leap while skimming, yet sooooo wrong. I think they might have even fought a few wars over the distinction or something.
I did admit that it’s been a long time since I’ve thought of the religious disagreement between Tolkien and Lewis. I had enough religious debates going on in other classes and focused more on the fantasy literature. Which is why I can still remember, with crazy accuracy, minute details of the Narnia Chronicles. (Not so much LoTR, though–I’ve got people for that.)