J. P. Donleavy

{{Infobox writer

| image = J. P. Donleavy appearing on "After Dark", 16 March 1991.jpg

| image size = 220px

| caption = Donleavy appearing on After Dark in 1991

| birth_name = James Patrick Donleavy

| pseudonym = J. P. Donleavy

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1926|4|23}}

| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2017|9|11|1926|4|23}}

| death_place = Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland

| resting_place = Levington Park estate, County Westmeath

| movement = Black comedy

| nationality = Irish

| occupation = {{flatlist|

Author
novelist
short story writer
playwright

}}

| genre = Prose fiction, satire, dark humor

| language = English

| spouse = {{ublist|{{marriage|Valerie Heron |1946 |1969}}|{{marriage|Mary Wilson Price |1970 |1989}}}}

| children = 2 children, 2 stepchildren

| alma_mater = Trinity College, Dublin (BS)

| notableworks = {{Plain list|

The Ginger Man (1955)
A Fairy Tale of New York (1973)
The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B (1968)

}}

| awards = Bord Gáis Lifetime Achievement Award

}}

James Patrick Donleavy, popularly known as J. P. Donleavy, (23 April 1926 – 11 September 2017) was an American-Irish author, short story writer, novelist, and playwright.{{cite news | author= |title= JP Donleavy obituary: acclaimed author of 'a bawled-out comic song of sex'|url= https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/jp-donleavy-obituary-acclaimed-author-of-a-bawled-out-comic-song-of-sex-1.3220783| date= 14 September 2017|newspaper= The Irish Times |location=Dublin| access-date=16 September 2017 }} Known for his usage of dark humor in his writings, he first achieved critical acclaim with his picaresque novel The Ginger Man, published in 1955 in Paris. The novel is an international bestseller, having sold 50 million copies worldwide,{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/14/books/a-toast-for-j-p-donleavy.html|title=An Appraisal: A Toast for J. P. Donleavy|first1=Dwight|last1=Garner|work=The New York Times|date=September 2017|location=New York, USA}}{{cite book | url=https://firsteditions.ie/books/the-ginger-man-60th-anniversary-limited-edition|title=The Ginger Man: 60th Anniversary Limited Edition|year=2015|publisher=The Lilliput Press|location=Ireland|isbn=9781843516460}} and is one of the best-selling books of all time.{{Cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/a-singular-man-j-p-donleavy-on-his-fascinating-life-since-the-ginger-man-2043380.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/a-singular-man-j-p-donleavy-on-his-fascinating-life-since-the-ginger-man-2043380.html |archive-date=18 June 2022 |url-status=live |title=A singular Life: J. P. Donleavy on his fascinating life since The Ginger Man |first=John |last=McEntee |newspaper=The Independent |date=4 August 2010}}{{cite web | url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/jp-donleavy-s-the-ginger-man-at-60-1.2287489|title=JP Donleavy's The Ginger Man at 60|year=2015|first1=Colin|last1=Overall|publisher=The Irish Times|location=Dublin}}{{cite web | url=https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/literature-and-writing/ginger-man-analysis-major-characters|title=The Ginger Man: Analysis of Major Characters|first1=David W. |last1=Madden|publisher=EBSCO|year=2011|location=Massachusetts, USA}} It has never been out of print and has been translated into more than 30 languages. It was subsequently named by the Modern Library in 1998 as "one of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century."{{cite web |url=http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/ |title=100 Best Novels |work=Modern Library|publisher=Penguin Random House Publications|year=1998|location=USA}}

Donleavy is also the author of A Fairy Tale of New York, published in 1973, and The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B, published in 1968. He received the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award, funded by Bord Gáis Energy, for his contributions to Irish literature in 2015.

Early life

Donleavy was born in Brooklyn, to Irish immigrants Margaret and Patrick Donleavy, and grew up in the Bronx. His father was a firefighter, and his mother came from a wealthy background.{{cite web | url=https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/jp-donleavy-irish-american-ireland-irish | title=J.P. Donleavy: Irish-American, American in Ireland, or Irish? | date=17 June 2021 }}{{cite web | url=https://www.irishpost.com/life-style/author-of-the-ginger-man-jp-donleavy-an-obituary-134053 | title=Author of the Ginger Man JP Donleavy - an obituary }} He had a sister, Mary Rita, and a younger brother.{{cite web |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41265684|title= JP Donleavey, author of The Ginger Man, dies |author= |date= 14 September 2017|website= BBC News Online |publisher= BBC | access-date= 14 September 2017 }} He received his education at various schools in the United States, then served in the US Navy during World War II. After the war ended, he moved to Ireland. In 1946 he began studying bacteriology at Trinity College Dublin, but left in 1949 before taking a degree.

Career

Donleavy's first published work was a short story entitled A Party on Saturday Afternoon, which appeared in the Dublin literary periodical Envoy in 1950.{{cite news |last= Campbell |first= James |title= JP Donleavy obituary |url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/14/jp-donleavy-obituary| date= 14 September 2017|newspaper= The Guardian |location=London| access-date=15 September 2017 }} He gained critical acclaim with his first novel, The Ginger Man (1955), which is one of the Modern Library 100 best novels.{{cite news|first=Mel|last=Gussow|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/28/books/the-classic-with-a-pornographic-pedigree.html?pagewanted=all|title=The Classic With a Pornographic Pedigree|newspaper=The New York Times|date=28 June 2000}} The novel, of which Donleavy's friend and fellow writer Brendan Behan was the first person to read the completed manuscript, was banned in Ireland and the United States by reason of obscenity. The Ginger Man was known for its outspoken and comic lewdness.{{cite book |last=De Breffny |first=Brian |author-link= |date=1983 |title=Ireland: A Cultural Encyclopedia |url= |location=London |publisher=Thames and Hudson |page=76 |isbn=}} Lead character Sebastian Dangerfield was in part based on Trinity College companion Gainor Crist, an American Navy veteran also studying at Trinity College on the G.I. Bill, whom Donleavy once described in an interview as a "saint", though of a Rabelaisian kind.'An Interview with J. P. Donleavy' Journal of Irish Literature January 1978

Correctly or incorrectly, his initial works are sometimes grouped with the kitchen sink artists as well as the "Angry Young Men".{{cite news |last= Campbell |first= James |title= The spice of life |url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jun/26/featuresreviews.guardianreview13| date= 26 June 2004 | newspaper= The Guardian |location=London| access-date=14 September 2017 }} Another novel, A Fairy Tale of New York, provided the title of the song "Fairytale of New York".

In March 2007, Donleavy was the castaway on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.{{cite episode| title= Desert Island Discs: JP Donleavy| series= Desert Island Discs| credits= Presenter: Kirsty Young| network=BBC| station= BBC Radio 4| url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00774yf| airdate= 4 March 2007| access-date= 14 September 2017 }}

In 2015, Donleavy was the recipient of the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award at the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards.{{cite web |url= http://www.irishbookawards.irish/2015/11/25/bord-gais-energy-irish-book-awards-2015-winning-authors-revealed/ |title= Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards 2015 winning authors revealed |author= |date= 25 November 2015 |website= Irish Book Awards |access-date= 14 September 2017 |archive-date= 1 January 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170101232339/http://www.irishbookawards.irish/2015/11/25/bord-gais-energy-irish-book-awards-2015-winning-authors-revealed/ |url-status= dead }}

In 2016, Trinity College Dublin awarded him with an honorary doctorate.{{Cite web|url=https://www.tcd.ie/registrar/honorary-degrees/2015-16/|title=Registrar : Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Ireland|website=www.tcd.ie|access-date=2020-01-07}}

Personal life

Donleavy declared himself to be an atheist at the age of 14.{{cite web |last1=Welch |first1=Frances |title=Me and My God J. P. Donleavy Talks to Frances Welch |url=http://www.jpdonleavy-compendium.org/Frances-Welch-Interview.html |website=jpdonleavy-compendium.org |publisher=Opinions Electronic Telegraph |date=April 11, 1998|quote= He became an atheist aged 13 or 14.}} In 1946, he married Valerie Heron; the couple had two children: Philip (born 1951) and Karen (born 1955). They divorced in 1969 and he remarried in 1970 to Mary Wilson Price; that union ended in divorce in 1989. In 2011, it was reported that Donleavy had not fathered his two children with Price. A DNA test in the early 1990s had confirmed that Rebecca was the daughter of brewing scion Kieran Guinness, and Rory was the son of Kieran's older brother Finn, whom Price married after her divorce from Donleavy. "My interest is only to look after the welfare of the child," Donleavy told The Times, "and after a certain stage, you can't worry about their parentage".{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Harrison |title=JP Donleavy, author whose debut novel The Ginger Man shocked society |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/jp-donleavy-author-the-ginger-man-a7948171.html |access-date=1 January 2019 |work=The Independent |date=15 September 2017 |language=en}}

He lived at Levington Park, a country house on {{convert|200|acre|km2}} directly on Lough Owel, near Mullingar, County Westmeath, from 1972. Throughout much of his life, he was known as Mike by close friends, though the origins of this nickname are unclear.{{cite web |title=A singular man: J P Donleavy on his fascinating life since The Ginger |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/a-singular-man-j-p-donleavy-on-his-fascinating-life-since-the-ginger-man-2043380.html |website=The Independent |language=en |date=5 August 2010}}

Donleavy died on 11 September 2017, aged 91.{{cite news |last= Gates |first= Anita |title= J.P. Donleavy, Acclaimed Author of 'The Ginger Man,' Dies at 91 |url= https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/books/jp-donleavy-acclaimed-author-of-the-ginger-man-dies-at-91.html | date= 13 September 2017| newspaper= The New York Times |location=New York| access-date=14 September 2017 }}

List of works

The Ginger Man (novel) Olympia Press, Paris 1955
What They Did in Dublin, with The Ginger Man (a play) MacGibbon & Kee, London 1961
The Ginger Man (play) Random House, New York 1961
Fairy Tales of New York (play), Penguin, UK 1961 Random House, New York 1961
A Singular Man Atlantic-Little, Brown, Boston 1963
Meet My Maker the Mad Molecule (stories/sketches) Atlantic-Little, Brown, Boston 1964
A Singular Man (play) The Bodley Head, UK 1965
The Saddest Summer of Samuel S (novella) Delacorte Press, New York 1966
The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B (novel) Delacorte Press, New York 1968
The Onion Eaters (novel) Delacorte Press, New York 1971
The Plays of JP Donleavy Delacorte Press, New York 1972
A Fairy Tale of New York (novel) Delacorte Press, New York 1973
J.P. Donleavy: The Plays Penguin, UK 1974
The Unexpurgated Code: A Complete Manual of Survival & Manners (non-fiction) Delacorte Press, New York 1975
{{cite book|title=The Destinies of Darcy Dancer, Gentleman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NJRy_38bdDIC&q=J.+P.+Donleavy&pg=PP1|publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press|year=1991|isbn=978-0-87113-289-5}} (novel) Franklin Library, Franklin Center, Pennsylvania 1977
Schultz (novel) Delacorte Press, New York 1979
{{cite book|title=Leila|publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press|year=1994|isbn=978-0-87113-288-8}} (novel) Franklin Library, Franklin Center, Pennsylvania 1983
De Alfonce Tennis... (novel) Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1984
J. P. Donleavy's Ireland... (non-fiction) Viking, New York, 1986 (Michael Joseph, London 1986)
Are You Listening Rabbi Löw (novel), Viking, London 1987
A Singular Country (nonfiction) Ryan, Peterborough, UK 1989
That Darcy, That Dancer, That Gentleman (novel) Viking, London 1990
The History of the Ginger Man (nonfiction) Houghton Mifflin, New York, 1994|Viking, London 1994
{{cite book|title=The Lady Who Liked Clean Rest Rooms|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=to81rg2ZhtkC&q=J.+P.+Donleavy|publisher=Macmillan|year=1998|isbn=978-0-312-18734-7}} (novella) Thornwillow Press, US 1995
An Author and His Image (collected short pieces – nonfiction) Viking, London 1997
Wrong Information is Being Given Out at Princeton (novel) Thomas Dunn-St. Martins Press, New York (Viking, London) 1998
A Letter Marked Personal (novel) The Lilliput Press, Arbour Hill, Dublin 2019

References

External links

[http://rinasherman.com/film/VOICES/JPDonleavy/JPDonleavy.html J. P. Donleavy, I Write About People I Like / Rina Sherman, Cineportrait, HDV, 78 min, k éditeur, Paris, 2012]
[http://www.jpdonleavy-compendium.org JPDonleavy-Compendium.org]
{{cite journal|url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3809/the-art-of-fiction-no-53-j-p-donleavy|title=J.P. Donleavy, The Art of Fiction No. 53|journal=Paris Review|date=Fall 1975|author=Molly McKaughan & Fayette Hickox|volume=Fall 1975 |issue=63 }}
{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ni8Nbk1j--cC&q=J.+P.+Donleavy&pg=PA23|title=J. P. Donleavy: The Formative Years|editor=N. P. James|publisher=Cv Publications|year=2008|isbn=978-1-905571-96-3}}
[http://totallygonzo.org/2008/06/17/the-ginger-man-in-dublin "The Ginger Man in Dublin", Totally Gonzo, 17 June 2008]
[http://home.earthlink.net/~dlhartz/donleavy/wood-jpd.html "Tea & Scones & Darcy Dancer: The Making of An Irish Gentleman – An Interview with J.P. Donleavy", Bloomsbury Review, E. Thomas Wood, January/February 1992]
[http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC?vrsn=149&OP=starts&locID=chan86036&srchtp=name&ca=2&c=1&AI=U13671893&NA=donleavy&ste=12&tbst=prp&tab=1&docNum=H1000026247&bConts=59 "J.P. Donleavy", Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2010.]
[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/a-singular-man-j-p-donleavy-on-his-fascinating-life-since-the-ginger-man-2043380.html "A singular man: J P Donleavy on his fascinating life since The Ginger Man"] John McEntee, The Independent, 5 August 2010
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW3ebxhABFQ J.P. Donleavy interviewed by Stephen Banker, circa 1978]
{{Cite journal | last = Fruchter | first = Norman | author-link = Norman Fruchter | title = Where is the ginger man? | journal = New Left Review | volume = I | issue = 8 | publisher = New Left Review | date = March–April 1961 | url = http://newleftreview.org/I/8/norman-fruchter-where-is-the-ginger-man }}