Josephine Edna O'Brien (born 15 December 1930) is an Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet and short-story writer. Elected to

Aosdána Aosdána ( , ; from , 'people of the arts') is an Irish association of artists. It was created in 1981 on the initiative of a group of writers with support from the country's Arts Council. Membership, which is by invitation from current member ...

by her fellow artists, she was honoured with the title Saoi in 2015 and the "UK and Ireland Nobel" David Cohen Prize in 2019, whilst France made her Commandeur de l'

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...

in 2021. O'Brien's works often revolve around the inner feelings of women, and their problems in relating to men, and to society as a whole. Her first novel, ''

The Country Girls ''The Country Girls'' is a trilogy by Irish author Edna O'Brien. It consists of three novels: ''The Country Girls'' (1960), ''The Lonely Girl (''1962), and '' Girls in Their Married Bliss'' (1964). The trilogy was re-released in 1986 in a single ...

'' (1960), is often credited with breaking silence on sexual matters and social issues during a repressive period in Ireland following the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. The book was banned, burned and denounced from the

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, acces ...

Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel ...

published her memoir, '' Country Girl'', in 2012. O'Brien lives in London. O'Brien has been mentioned as a candidate for the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

in literature.

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...

described her as "the most gifted woman now writing in English", while a former President of Ireland,

Mary Robinson Mary Therese Winifred Robinson ( ga, Máire Mhic Róibín; ; born 21 May 1944) is an Irish politician who was the 7th president of Ireland, serving from December 1990 to September 1997, the first woman to hold this office. Prior to her electi ...

, cited her as "one of the great creative writers of her generation". Others to hail her as one of the greatest writers alive include

John Banville William John Banville (born 8 December 1945) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, adapter of dramas and screenwriter. Though he has been described as "the heir to Proust, via Nabokov", Banville himself maintains that W. B. Yeats and Henry J ...

, Michael Ondaatje and Sir Ian McKellen. O'Brien received the Irish PEN Award in 2001. '' Saints and Sinners'' won the 2011 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the world's richest prize for a short-story collection.

Life and career

Josephine Edna O'Brien was born in 1930 to farmer Michael O'Brien and Lena Cleary at Tuamgraney, County Clare, Ireland, a place she would later describe as "fervid" and "enclosed". The family lived at "Drewsborough" (also "Drewsboro"), a "large two-storey house", which her mother kept in "semi-grandeur". Michael O'Brien, "whose family had seen wealthier times" as landowners, had inherited a "thousand acres or more" and "a fortune from rich uncles", but was a "profligate" hard-drinker who gambled away his inheritance, the land "sold off in bits ... or bartered to pay debts";Country Girl: A Memoir, Edna O'Brien, 2012, p. 4 Lena "came from a poorer background". According to O'Brien, her mother was a strong, controlling woman who had emigrated temporarily to America, and worked for some time as a maid in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, for a well-off Irish-American family before returning to Ireland to raise her family. O'Brien was the youngest child of "a strict, religious family". From 1941 to 1946 she was educated by the Sisters of Mercy at the Convent of Mercy boarding school at Loughrea,

County Galway "Righteousness and Justice" , anthem = () , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Galway.svg , map_caption = Location in Ireland , area_footnotes = , area_total_km2 = ...

– a circumstance that contributed to a "suffocating" childhood. "I rebelled against the coercive and stifling religion into which I was born and bred. It was very frightening and all pervasive. I'm glad it has gone." She was fond of a nun as she deeply missed her mother and tried to identify the nun with her. In 1950, having studied at night at pharmaceutical college and worked in a Dublin pharmacy during the day, O'Brien was awarded a licence as a pharmacist. In Ireland, she read such writers as Tolstoy, Thackeray, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. In Dublin, O'Brien bought ''Introducing James Joyce'', with an introduction written by T. S. Eliot, and said that when she learned that

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

's '' A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' was autobiographical, it made her realise where she might turn, should she want to write herself. "Unhappy houses are a very good incubation for stories", she said. In London she started work as a reader for Hutchinson, where on the basis of her reports she was commissioned, for £50, to write a novel. She published her first book, ''

'', in 1960. This was the first part of a trilogy of novels (later collected as ''The Country Girls Trilogy''), which included '' The Lonely Girl'' (1962) and '' Girls in Their Married Bliss'' (1964). Shortly after their publication, these books were banned and, in some cases burned, in her native country due to their frank portrayals of the sex lives of their characters. O'Brien herself was accused of "corrupting the minds of young women"; she later said: "I felt no fame. I was married. I had young children. All I could hear out of Ireland from my mother and anonymous letters was bile and odium and outrage." In the 1960s, she was a patient of

R.D. Laing Ronald David Laing (7 October 1927 – 23 August 1989), usually cited as R. D. Laing, was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illnessin particular, the experience of psychosis. Laing's views on the causes and treatment of ...

: "I thought he might be able to help me. He couldn't do that – he was too mad himself – but he opened doors", she later said. Her novel, ''A Pagan Place'' (1970), was about her repressive childhood. Her parents were vehemently against all things related to literature; her mother strongly disapproved of her daughter's career as a writer. Once when her mother found a Seán O'Casey book in her daughter's possession, she tried to burn it. Alongside Teddy Taylor (Conservative),

Michael Foot Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 19133 March 2010) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Labour Leader from 1980 to 1983. Foot began his career as a journalist on ''Tribune'' and the ''Evening Standard''. He co-wrote the 1940 p ...

(Labour) and

Derek Worlock Derek John Harford Worlock CH (4 February 1920 – 8 February 1996) was an English prelate of the Roman Catholic Church and Archbishop of Liverpool. Life Worlock was born in St John's Wood, London, on 4 February 1920, the son of Captain ...

(Catholic

Archbishop of Liverpool The Archbishop of Liverpool is the ordinary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool and metropolitan of the Province of Liverpool (also known as the Northern Province) in England. The archdiocese covers an area of of the west of the C ...

), O'Brien was a panel member for the first edition of the BBC's '' Question Time'' in 1979 and was awarded the first answer in the programme's history ("Edna O'Brien, you were born there", referring to Ireland). Taylor's death in 2017 left her as the sole surviving member. i In 1980, she wrote a play, ''Virginia'', about

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born ...

, and it was staged originally in June 1980 at the

Stratford Festival The Stratford Festival is a theatre festival which runs from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Founded by local journalist Tom Patterson in 1952, the festival was formerly known as the Stratford Shakespearean Festival ...

, Ontario, Canada and subsequently in the

West End of London The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, in which many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government build ...

at the

Theatre Royal Haymarket The Theatre Royal Haymarket (also known as Haymarket Theatre or the Little Theatre) is a West End theatre on Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use. Samuel Foot ...

with

Maggie Smith Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (born 28 December 1934) is an English actress. With an extensive career on screen and stage beginning in the mid-1950s, Smith has appeared in more than sixty films and seventy plays. She is one of the few performer ...

and directed by Robin Phillips. It was staged at The Public Theater in New York in 1985. Also in 1980 O'Brien appeared alongside

Patrick McGoohan Patrick Joseph McGoohan (; March 19, 1928 – January 13, 2009) was an Irish-American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television. Born in the United States to Irish emigrant parents, he was raised in Ireland and Engl ...

in TV movie ''The Hard Way''. Other works include a biography of James Joyce, published in 1999, and one of the poet

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...

, ''Byron in Love'' (2009). '' House of Splendid Isolation'' (1994), her novel about a terrorist who goes on the run (part of her research involved visiting Irish republican

Dominic McGlinchey Dominic "Mad Dog" McGlinchey (1954 – 10 February 1994) was an Irish republican paramilitary leader, who moved from the Provisional IRA to become head of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) paramilitary group in the early 1980s. McGlin ...

, later shot dead, whom she called "a grave and reflective man"), marked a new phase in her writing career. '' Down by the River'' (1996) concerned an under-age rape victim who sought an abortion in England, the "Miss X case". '' In the Forest'' (2002) dealt with the real-life case of Brendan O'Donnell, who abducted and murdered a woman, her three-year-old son, and a priest, in rural Ireland. In September 2021, it was announced that O'Brien would be donating her archive to the National Library of Ireland. The Library will hold papers from O'Brien covering the period of 2000 to 2021 and includes correspondence, drafts, notes, and revisions. O'Brien's papers from 1939 to 2000 are held by

Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...

in Atlanta, Georgia.

Awards and honours

O'Brien's awards include the ''

Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds in Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...

'' Book Award in 1970 (for ''A Pagan Place''), and the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' Book Prize in 1990 for ''

Lantern Slides The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a sin ...

''. In 2006, she was appointed adjunct professor of English Literature in

University College, Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 33,284 student ...

. In 2009, O'Brien was honoured with the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award during a special ceremony at the year's Irish Book Awards in Dublin. Her collection '' Saints and Sinners'' won the 2011 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, with judge Thomas McCarthy referring to her as "the Solzhenitsyn of Irish life".

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, whil ...

aired a documentary on her as part of its Arts strand in early 2012. On 10 April 2018, for her contributions to

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...

, she was appointed an honorary Dame of the Order of the British Empire. In 2019, O'Brien was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature at a ceremony in London. The £40,000 prize, awarded every two years in recognition of a living writer's lifetime achievement in literature, has been described as the "UK and Ireland Nobel in literature". Judge David Park said "In winning the David Cohen Prize, Edna O’Brien adds her name to a literary roll call of honour". In March 2021,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

announced that it would be awarding O'Brien

, France's highest honour for the arts.

Legacy

According to Scottish novelist Andrew O'Hagan, O'Brien's place in Irish letters is assured. "She changed the nature of Irish fiction; she brought the woman's experience and sex and internal lives of those people on to the page, and she did it with style, and she made those concerns international." Irish novelist Colum McCann avers that O'Brien has been "the advance scout for the Irish imagination" for over fifty years. Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia) holds her papers up to 2000. More recent papers are at

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 33,284 student ...

Personal life

In 1954, O'Brien met and married, against her parents' wishes, the Irish writer Ernest Gébler, and the couple moved to London, where, as she later put it, "We lived in SW 20. Sub-urb-ia." They had two sons, Carlo, a writer, and Sasha, an architect, but the marriage ended in 1964. In 2009, Carlo revealed that his parents' marriage had been volatile, with bitter rows between his mother and father over her success. Initially believing he deserved credit for helping her become an accomplished writer, Gébler came to believe he was the author of O'Brien's books. He died in 1998.

Other honours and awards

* 1962: Kingsley Amis Award * 1970: ''

The Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds in Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...

'' Book Award (Book of the Year), for '' A Pagan Place'' * 1990: ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize for Fiction, for ''

'' * 1991: Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy), for ''

Girl with Green Eyes ''Girl with Green Eyes'' is a 1964 British film, which Edna O'Brien adapted from her novel ''The Lonely Girl''. It tells the story of a young, naive country girl's romance with a sophisticated older man. Directed by Desmond Davis, the film stars ...

'' * 1993: Writers' Guild Award (Best Fiction), for ''

Time and Tide Time and Tide (usually derived from the proverb ''Time and tide wait for no man'') may refer to: Music Albums * ''Time and Tide'' (Greenslade album), 1975 * ''Time and Tide'' (Basia album), 1987 * ''Time and Tide'' (Battlefield Band album), ...

'' * 1995: European Prize for Literature (European Association for the Arts), for '' House of Splendid Isolation'' * 2000: Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet ...

* 2001: Irish PEN Award * 2006: Ulysses Medal (University College Dublin) * 2009: Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award * 2010: Shortlisted for Irish Book of the Decade ( Irish Book Awards), for '' In the Forest'' * 2012: Irish Book Awards (Irish Non-Fiction Book), for ''Country Girl'' * 2015: Saoi * 2018: PEN/Nabokov Award * 2019: David Cohen Prize * 2021: Commandeur de l'

(France)

List of works

Novels

* 1960: ''

'' () * 1962: ''The Lonely Girl'' later published as ''Girl with Green Eyes'' () * 1964: '' Girls in Their Married Bliss'' () * 1965: '' August Is a Wicked Month'' () * 1966: '' Casualties of Peace'' () * 1970: '' A Pagan Place'' () * 1972: ''Night'' () * 1977: ''Johnny I Hardly Knew You'' (); in US, "I Hardly Knew You" () * 1987: ''The Country Girls Trilogy'' with new epilogue () * 1988: '' The High Road'' () * 1992: ''

'' () * 1994: '' House of Splendid Isolation'' () * 1996: '' Down by the River'' () * 1999: '' Wild Decembers'' () * 2002: '' In the Forest'' () * 2006: '' The Light of Evening'' () * 2015: '' The Little Red Chairs'' () * 2019: '' Girl'' ()

Short story collections

* 1968: ''The Love Object and Other Stories'' () * 1974: ''A Scandalous Woman and Other Stories'' () * 1978: ''Mrs Reinhardt and Other Stories'' () * 1982: ''Returning'' () * 1985: ''A Fanatic Heart'' () * 1990: ''

'' () * 2011: '' Saints and Sinners'' () * 2013: ''The Love Object: Selected Stories'', a fifty-year retrospective, ()

Drama

* 1973 "A Pagan Place" () * 1975: ''Zee and Co'' () * 1980: ''Virginia'' () * 2005: ''Family Butchers'' * 2005: ''Triptych and Iphigenia'' () * 2009: ''Haunted'' * 2011; "The Country Girls" () * 2014 "Joyce's Women" ()

Screenplays

* 1971: "Zee & Co." ()

Nonfiction books

* 1976: ''Mother Ireland'', () * 1977: ''Arabian Days'' () * 1979: ''Some Irish Loving'', as editor: anthology () * 1981 "James & Nora" (); reprinted in 2020 * 1986: ''Vanishing Ireland'' (with photographs by Richard Fitzgerald), () * 1999: ''James Joyce'', biography () * 2009: ''Byron in Love'', biography () * 2012: '' Country Girl'', memoir ()

Children's books

* 1981: ''The Dazzle'' () * 1982: ''A Christmas Treat'' () * 1983: "The Rescue" () * 2017: ''Tales for the Telling'', ()

Poetry collections

* 1989: ''On the Bone'' ()

References

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'', 7 December 2012
Video recording of O'Brien reads an extract from her autobiography ''Country Girl''

Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
O'Brien papers, circa 1939-2000
{{DEFAULTSORT:OBrien, Edna 1930 births Living people Aosdána members David Cohen Prize recipients Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Honorary Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Irish biographers Irish memoirists Irish women memoirists Irish PEN Award for Literature winners Irish women short story writers Irish women dramatists and playwrights Irish women novelists Irish women poets People from County Clare Saoithe 20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Irish novelists 20th-century Irish short story writers 20th-century Irish women writers 21st-century Irish dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Irish novelists 21st-century Irish short story writers 21st-century Irish women writers Women biographers PEN/Nabokov Award winners