Edwin O'Connor (July 29, 1918 â€" March 23, 1968) was an American journalist, novelist, and radio commentator who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction during 1962 for his novel The Edge of Sadness (1961). His ancestry was Irish, and his novels concerned the Irish-American experience and often dealt with the lives of politicians and priests.
Early life
O'Connor was born to a medical doctor in Providence, Rhode Island, but was raised in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. He was an alumnus of La Salle Academy and the University of Notre Dame. After graduation, he served in the United States Coast Guard during World War II. During 1946 he began working as a freelance author, selling his stories and reports to numerous magazines, including Atlantic Monthly.
Writing career
During the 1950s O'Connor began a career as a television critic for two Boston newspapers, a profession he would have 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 remembered most, 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. But his time has passed, and he loses the election. While not a roman à clef, there is some similarity between Skeffington and Boston mayor James Michael Curley. This novel was adapted for a movie of 1958, and O'Connor wrote the screenplay himself. 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 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction during 1962 for his next novel, The Edge of Sadness (Little, Brown, 1961). It is the story of a middle-aged priest in an unnamed New England port city with a cathedral, 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 during 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.
O'Connor died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage during 1968.
Legacy
Published posthumously during 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 inventing 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 Last Hurrah (film script) (1958)
- The Edge of Sadness (Little, Brown, 1961)
- I Was Dancing (Little, Brown, 1964)
- All in the Family (Little, Brown, 1966)
- The Best and the Last of Edwin O'Connor (Little, Brown, 1970) â€" selections and fragments with contributions by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.; Edmund Wilson; John V. Kelleher
- Benjy: A Ferocious Fairy Tale (Godine, 1994), illus. Catharine O'Neill
References
Further reading
- Duffy, Charles F. (2003). A Family of His Own: A Life of Edwin O'Connor. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press. ISBN 0-8132-1337-1.
- O'Connell, Shaun (1990). Imagining Boston: A Literary Landscape. Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN 0-8070-5102-0.
- Rank, Hugh (1974). Edwin O'Connor. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-8057-0555-4.
External links
- The IMDB biography
- Edwin O'Connor at Library of Congress Authorities, with 16 catalog records