Edwin Greene O'Connor (July 29, 1918 – March 23, 1968) was an American journalist, novelist, and radio commentator. He won the

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published durin ...

in 1962 for his novel '' The Edge of Sadness'' (1961). His ancestry was Irish, and his novels concerned the

Irish-American , image = Irish ancestry in the USA 2018; Where Irish eyes are Smiling.png , image_caption = Irish Americans, % of population by state , caption = Notable Irish Americans , population = 36,115,472 (10.9%) alone ...

experience and often dealt with the lives of politicians and priests. (24 March 1968)
Prize Winning Author Edwin O'Connor Dies
''

Oxnard Press-Courier ''The Oxnard Press-Courier'' was a newspaper located in Oxnard, California, United States. It ceased publication in June 1994 after 95 years.

'' (

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story)

Early life

O'Connor was born to a medical doctor in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

, but was raised in

Woonsocket, Rhode Island Woonsocket ( ), is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 43,240 at the 2020 census, making it the sixth largest city in the state. Being Rhode Island's northernmost city, Woonsocket lies directly south of ...

. He was an alumnus of

La Salle Academy } La Salle Academy is an American private, Catholic all-boys' high school in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York. The school is run by the Eastern North American District of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. ...

and the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main c ...

. After graduation, he served in the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, m ...

during

World War II 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. In 1946 he began working as a freelance author, selling his stories and reports to numerous magazines, including ''

Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

''.

Writing career

During the 1950s O'Connor began a career as a

television critic Television criticism is the act of writing or speaking about television programming to evaluate its worth, meaning, and other aspects. Such criticism can be found in daily newspapers, on culture discussion shows (on TV and radio), and in speciali ...

for two Boston newspapers, a profession he would follow for the remainder of his life. He also published his first novel, ''The Oracle'' (1951). Soon afterward, he published the novel for which he is most remembered, '' The Last Hurrah'' (1956). The novel concerns a Boston Irish politician, Frank Skeffington, as related by a nephew whom he invites to accompany him on what is an eventually unsuccessful reelection campaign. Skeffington has a gentlemanly manner, lacing his talk with literary quotations. He is slightly corrupt but delivers service to his constituents. He is an expert at balancing the claims of the various Boston-area ethnic groups. However, his time has passed, and he loses the election. While it is not a

roman à clef ''Roman à clef'' (, anglicised as ), French for ''novel with a key'', is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship be ...

, there is some similarity between the novel's Skeffington and the real life Boston Mayor

James Michael Curley James Michael Curley (November 20, 1874 – November 12, 1958) was an American Democratic politician from Boston, Massachusetts. He served four terms as mayor of Boston. He also served a single term as governor of Massachusetts, characterize ...

. The novel was adapted for film in 1958, with

John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...

directing a screenplay by

Frank S. Nugent Frank Stanley Nugent (May 27, 1908 – December 29, 1965) was an American screenwriter, journalist, and film reviewer, who wrote 21 film scripts, 11 for director John Ford. He wrote almost a thousand reviews for ''The New York Times'' before lea ...

. Starring

Spencer Tracy Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the first actor to win two cons ...

Jeffrey Hunter Jeffrey Hunter (born Henry Herman McKinnies Jr.; November 25, 1926 – May 27, 1969) was an American film and television actor and producer known for his roles in films such as ''The Searchers'' and ''King of Kings''. On television, Hunter ...

, and

Donald Crisp Donald William Crisp (27 July 188225 May 1974) was an English film actor as well as an early producer, director and screenwriter. His career lasted from the early silent film era into the 1960s. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor ...

, the film was not a commercial success. However, as Charles Fanning notes, "The windfall profits from ''The Last Hurrah'' made O'Connor for the first time financially secure." O'Connor won the annual

in 1962 for his next novel, ''The Edge of Sadness'' (

Little, Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown (publisher), James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Ear ...

, 1961). It is the story of a middle-aged priest in an unnamed New England city with a cathedral that is probably modeled on Providence, his birthplace. ''I Was Dancing'' (1964) is a novel about an aging vaudevillian who tries to become reacquainted with his son after twenty years of casual neglect. His last novel, ''All in the Family'', appeared in 1966. (It has no relation at all to the later television series of the same name.) It is a story of a Massachusetts family with a father who has political ambitions for his sons. As with ''The Last Hurrah'', it is not a roman à clef but the clan is certainly reminiscent of the Kennedy family. "Edwin O'Connor, the author of ''The Last Hurrah'', summed up the era in his final novel, ''All in the Family'': 'Corruption here had a shoddy, penny-ante quality it did not have in other states....Here everything was up for grabs and nothing was too small to steal....In our politics there seemed to be a depthless cushion of street-corner cynicism, a special kind of tainted, small-time fellowship which sent out a complex of vines and shoots so interconnected that even the sleaziest poolroom bookie managed, in some way, however obscure, to be in touch with the mayor's office or the governor's chair.'" O'Connor died suddenly of a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

in 1968.

Legacy

Published posthumously in 1970 was ''The Best and the Last of Edwin O'Connor'', which included excerpts from his published novels, fragments of unpublished works, articles written by him, and a lecture transcript. The book's introduction was written by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. He is remembered for coining the phrase "the last hurrah". The Omni Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts features a bar named "The Last Hurrah".

Books

*''The Oracle'' (Harper, 1951) *'' The Last Hurrah'' (Little, Brown, 1956) *''Benjy: A Ferocious Fairy Tale'' (Little, Brown, 1957), illustrated by Ati Forberg *'' The Edge of Sadness'' (Little, Brown, 1961) *'' I Was Dancing'' (Little, Brown, 1964) *
All in the Family
' (Little, Brown, 1966; Cluny Media, 2019) *''The Best and the Last of Edwin O'Connor'' (Little, Brown, 1970) — selections and fragments with contributions by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.; Edmund Wilson; John V. Kelleher"The best and the last of Edwin O'Connor"
Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 2013-11-11. *''Benjy: A Ferocious Fairy Tale'' (Godine, 1994), illus. Catharine O'Neill

References

External links