Frank OConnor

O’Connor, Frank

 

(pen name of Michael O’Donovan). Born 1903 in Cork; died Mar. 10, 1966, in Dublin. Irish writer.

O’Connor participated in the civil war of 1922–23 on the side of the republicans. He was director of the Abbey Theater in Dublin from 1935 to 1939. His first short-story collection, Guests of the Nation (1931), re-creates episodes from the national liberation struggle of the Irish people. O’Connor’s best short stories attack the dreariness of provincial life and the authority of the church and are included in collections such as My Oedipus Complex and Other Stories (1963) and Collection Three (1969). He is the author of works of literary criticism, such as The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story (1962) and A Short History of Irish Literature (published 1967), as well as of articles on Russian literature. O’Connor published two anthologies of his own English translations of Irish poetry of the seventh through 19th centuries: Kings, Lords, and Commons (1959) and The Little Monasteries (1963).

WORKS

An Only Child. London, 1961.
My Father’s Son. London, 1968.

REFERENCES

Sarukhanian, A. P. Sovremennaia irlandskaia literatura. Moscow, 1973.
Michael/Frank: Studies on Frank O’Connor. Dublin, 1969.

A. P. SARUKHANIAN