Peter Costello (3 April 1946,

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

) is an author and editor, described by the American critic Robert Hogan in the ''Greenwood Dictionary of Irish Literature'' as “a contemporary embodiment” of the “tradition in Irish literature of the independent scholar, who has an erudition embarrassing to the professional academic”.

Personal life

Peter Costello is the youngest son of James C. Costello, a consulting engineer, later professor emeritus of architecture at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, and his wife Margaret. He was educated in Dublin by the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

Gonzaga College Gonzaga College SJ is a voluntary Catholic boys' secondary school in Ranelagh, Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 1950, Gonzaga College is under the trusteeship of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit Order), one of five Jesuit secondary schools in Irela ...

and graduated from the

in 1969. After some years abroad in the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and elsewhere, he returned to

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in 1975. He now lives in Dublin, with frequent visits to France and other countries. He is married with two sons, one of whom is TD Patrick Costello.

Work

He has written, edited, or contributed to some thirty-seven books; and his interests have been extraordinarily wide-ranging—from Irish cultural, political and business histories, to books on animal mythology, research on the

Piltdown Man The Piltdown Man was a paleoanthropological fraud in which bone fragments were presented as the fossilised remains of a previously unknown early human. Although there were doubts about its authenticity virtually from the beginning, the remains ...

hoax of 1912, and books on

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

and

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for '' A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

. His main field of interest is

Irish literature Irish literature comprises writings in the Irish, Latin, English and Scots ( Ulster Scots) languages on the island of Ireland. The earliest recorded Irish writing dates from the 7th century and was produced by monks writing in both Latin an ...

and history. ''The Heart Grown Brutal'' (1977) provides “a learned but very readable study of writers who flourished from the death of Parnell to the death of Yeats, and which called attention to several significant figures outside the academic pantheon”. The novelist John Broderick, in reviewing the book, called it “this wise and often brilliant history”. Peter Costello is an internationally recognized authority on the life and times of

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

, on whom he has four books written: ''James Joyce'' (1980); ''Leopold Bloom: a biography'' (1981); ''James Joyce—The Years of Growth, 1882-1915 ''(1992); ''The Life of Leopold Bloom: a novel ''(1992); with John Wyse Jackson he is the author of a biography of James Joyce’s father''

John Stanislaus Joyce John Stanislaus Joyce (4 July 1849 – 29 December 1931) was the father of writer James Joyce, and a well known Dublin man about town. The son of James and Ellen (''née'' O'Connell) Joyce, John Joyce grew up in Cork (city), Cork, where his mo ...

'' whose character was influential in both ''

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' is the first novel of Irish writer James Joyce. A ''Künstlerroman'' written in a modernist style, it traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young Stephen Dedalus, Joyce's fictional alter ...

'' and'' Ulysses. ''He has also written a biography of

Flann O'Brien Brian O'Nolan ( ga, Brian Ó Nualláin; 5 October 1911 – 1 April 1966), better known by his pen name Flann O'Brien, was an Irish civil service official, novelist, playwright and satirist, who is now considered a major figure in twentieth cen ...

, ''Flann O'Brien'' (1987), in collaboration with Peter van de Kamp, a Dutch academic. His book ''The Real World of Sherlock Holmes'' when first published in 1991, was extensively reviewed and revised for republication in 2006 as ''Conan Doyle Detective'', translations of which appeared in French and Spanish, with additional material. His theories about the identity of the

hoax, one of the greatest scientific frauds of all time, were published as articles in '' Antiquity'', and are discussed by Professor

Glyn Daniel Glyn Edmund Daniel Fellow of the British Academy, FBA, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, FRAI (23 April 1914 – 13 December 1986) was a Wales, Welsh scientist and archaeologist who taught at Cambridge University, ...

in his memoirs ''Writing for Antiquity''. He is currently Books Editor of ''

The Irish Catholic ''The Irish Catholic'' is a 40-page Irish weekly newspaper providing news and commentary about the Catholic Church. The newspaper is privately owned by editor-in-chief Garry O’Sullivan, managed by a private limited company and independent of ...

'', a national weekly newspaper published in

Cryptozoology

Peter Costello has also written in the field of

cryptozoology Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that searches for and studies unknown, legendary, or extinct animals whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, particularly those popular in folklore, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness ...

, e.g. his ''In Search of Lake Monsters'' (1974), and ''The Magic Zoo: The Natural History of Imaginary Animals'' (1979). A second edition of ''In Search of Lake Monsters'' (1974), with a long introduction by Dr Bernard Heuvelmans, “the father of cryptozoology” was published in French in 1978. Alongside these Peter Costello has contributions on the subject over the years to journals and books. His book ''In Search of Lake Monsters'' is an examination of unidentified swimming objects. Following on the work of Oudemans and Heuvelmans, he considered that these creatures were a type of giant long-necked seal. It was positively reviewed as "both scholarly and entertaining, avoiding the excesses of gullible monster-mania and blind disbelief."

Selected publications

*1974 In Search of Lake Monsters (Garnstone Press) hardback * 1975 In Search of Lake Monsters (Panther) paperback * 1977 Heart Grown Brutal: Irish Revolution in Literature from Parnell to the Death of Yeats, 1891-1939 (Gill & Macmillan) * 1978

: Inventor of Science Fiction (Hodder & Stoughton) hardback * 1979 The Magic Zoo: The Natural History of Fabulous Animals, (London: SphereBooks; New York: St. Martin's Press) * 1980

(Gill & Macmillan) * 1981

Leopold Bloom Leopold Bloom is the fictional protagonist and hero of James Joyce's 1922 novel ''Ulysses''. His peregrinations and encounters in Dublin on 16 June 1904 mirror, on a more mundane and intimate scale, those of Ulysses/Odysseus in Homer's epic poe ...

: a biography (Gill & Macmillan) * 1983 Jules Verne: Inventor of Science Fiction (New York: Scribner) paperback * 1989 Dublin Churches (Gill & Macmillan) * 1989 Clongowes Wood: a History of

Clongowes Wood College Clongowes Wood College SJ is a voluntary boarding school for boys near Clane, County Kildare, Ireland, founded by the Jesuits in 1814, which features prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Yo ...

, 1814-1989 (Gill & Macmillan) * 1991 The Real World of

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

(Robinson) * 1992 The Life of Leopold Bloom: a novel (Roberts Rinehart) * 1992 “The very heart of the city”: The story of Denis Guiney and Clerys (Clery and Co.) * 1996 Dublin Literary Pub Crawl (A. & A. Farmar) * 1996 Liam O’Flaherty’s Ireland (Dublin: Wolfhound Press; US edition) * 1998

Dublin Castle Dublin Castle ( ga, Caisleán Bhaile Átha Cliath) is a former Motte-and-bailey castle and current Irish government complex and conference centre. It was chosen for its position at the highest point of central Dublin. Until 1922 it was the se ...

in the Life of the Irish Nation (Wolfhound / Merlin) * 1998

, with John Wyse Jackson (Fourth Estate) * 1999 Dublin's Literary Pubs (2nd edition of 1996 book) * 2001 The Irish 100 (British version, London) * 2002 The Irish 100 (American version, New York) * 2006

Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...

: Detective (Robinson Publishing) * 2008 Denis Guiney (UCD Press). * 2010 Conan Doyle Detective, Paris: France Loisir. French hardback book club edition

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Costello, Peter 1946 births Cryptozoologists Irish male non-fiction writers Living people Writers from Dublin (city) People educated at Gonzaga College University of Michigan alumni