David Marcus (21 August 1924 in

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns a ...

9 May 2009) was an Irish Jewish editor and writer who was a lifelong advocate for and editor of Irish fiction.

Life and times

Born in

in 1924, Marcus was the much-loved editor of numerous

anthologies In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

of Irish fiction and poetry, including the ''Phoenix Irish Short Stories'' collections. Other notable projects included the page ''New Irish Writing'' for the ''

Irish Press ''The Irish Press'' ( Irish: ''Scéala Éireann'') was an Irish national daily newspaper published by Irish Press plc between 5 September 1931 and 25 May 1995. Foundation The paper's first issue was published on the eve of the 1931 All-Ireland ...

'', which provided a forum for aspiring Irish authors, publishing most of the most important names in Irish fiction, many for the first time, including

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, Anne Enright,

Neil Jordan Neil Patrick Jordan (born 25 February 1950) is an Irish film director, screenwriter, novelist and short-story writer. His first book, '' Night in Tunisia'', won a Somerset Maugham Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1979. He won an Academ ...

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, John McGahern,

Michael Feeney Callan Michael Feeney Callan is an Irish novelist and poet. An award winner for his short fiction and also for non-fiction, he joined BBC television drama as a story editor, and wrote screenplays for '' The Professionals'', and for American television. ...

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, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, Joseph O'Connor,

Colm Tóibín Colm Tóibín (, approximately ; born 30 May 1955) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet. His first novel, '' The South'', was published in 1990. ''The Blackwater Lightship'' was shortlist ...

and William Wall. He was, in the words of Fintan O'Toole "the single most important literary editor in Ireland in the second half of the 20th century". His 1986 novel, ''A Land Not Theirs'', a fictionalized account of the experiences of the Cork Jewish community during the

Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...

was a bestseller. In 1986, his second novel, which drew on his experiences among the Cork Jewish community, ''A Land in Flames'' was also a popular success. In 2001, Marcus published ''Oughtobiography – Leaves from the diary of a hyphenated Jew'', an autobiographical review of his life as an Irish Jew and as an important figure in Irish literature. On 3 June 2005, he was awarded an honorary Degree of Doctor of Literature by the National University of Ireland,

University College, Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh) is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of ...

Marcus was married to fellow Irish novelist

and lived in

Rathgar Rathgar (), is a suburb of Dublin in Ireland. It was originally a village which from 1862 was part of the township of Rathmines and Rathgar; it was absorbed by the growing city and became a suburb in 1930. It lies about three kilometres south of ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

. In 2016 she published a memoir of their life together, ''I'll Drop You a Line: A Life With David Marcus''.

Bibliography

* *

References

External links

Profile of Marcus
at "Irish Writers Online"
Irish P.E.N. Special Award citation of David Marcus

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marcus, David 1924 births 2009 deaths 20th-century Irish people 21st-century Irish people Irish editors Irish-language writers Irish Jews Irish people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Irish writers Jewish writers People associated with University College Cork People from County Cork The Irish Press people People educated at Presentation Brothers College, Cork