Irish-American Books

This is a fascinating read - very well-researched and written. Even if you aren't a Beatles fan, you will find this book interesting!

This is a fantastic book written by an interesting and brilliant professor of English. I urge anyone interested in poetry or the Beatles or both to purchase this wonderful scholarly title. Any library would wish to have this wonderful book!

"The claim of being reasonable and honest did not impress him, for Yeats felt that 'poets were good liars who never forgot that the Muses were women who liked the embrace of gay warty lads'." (93)

"Yeats astonishes us by the bluntness with which he makes clear the defects of our world. But having made clear its limitations, he suddenly enters upon its defense. It has pain, it has struggle, it has tragedy, elements denied to the daimons. Seen from their point of view life always fails. Yet it does not fail utterly, for man can imagine their state even if he cannot participate in it. And the capacity to imagine is redemptive; man, in a frenzy at being limited, overthrows much of that limitation. He defiantly adsserts his imaged self against futility, and to imagine heroism is to become a hero." (27)

"[Beckett] saw besmirchment as the human condition. What right had he to exempt himself from it? Might not his claim to privacy be the last rag of egotism?" (231)

"By making his book the matrix for the ontogeny of the soul, Joyce achieved a unity as perfect as any of the Edwardians could achieve, and justified literally his description of the artist as like a mother brooding over her creation until it assumes independent life. The aspiration towards unity in the novel seems related to the search for unity elsewhere, in psychology for example, where the major effort is to bring the day-world and the night-world together. Edwardian writers who commented on history demonstrated the same desire to see human life in a synthesis. In 1900, Joyce announced in his paper on 'Drama and Life' that 'human society is the embodiment of changeless laws', laws which he would picture in operation in Finnegans Wake." (159)

"The difference between Wilde and the Romantics was not in estimating the value of art, but in putting so much emphasis as Wilde did on artifice. When he said, 'A sunset is no doubt a beautiful thing, but perhaps its chief use is to illustrate quotations from the poets', he was suggesting that artists were not only the Shelleyan unackwoledged legislators, but the quickeners of perception. Nature as we know it is built up out of imaginative fictions. Strip as we will, we will never be naked. People fall in love because poets have talked up that sentiment. They limp because Byron limped. They dress up because Beau Brummell did. Wilde's point here being that people are not only affected by the works of art that are written down, but by the works of art that are lived." (7)

. . . vintage quotes from the 'inside' of the process of literary creation. Ellman got there more often than any commentator I have read. There are many fascinating chapters in this svelte yet far-ranging collection of papers, mostly posthumous. But, my favorite section of the book is his remarkable reminiscence of the period when he essentially lived in Yeats' home and, with Yeats' widow, explored the life and writings of that great and controversial poet, first-hand. Extrodinary!
The above citations all concern those great Irishmen, on whom Ellman wrote as well as anyone ever has, or, perhaps, ever will, due to the recessive quality of temporal duration. Some of his work on American authors is included in the volume. This stuff is curious at best, and does not exhibit either the miraculous sensitivity or depth of research and consideration of the main ideas in related contexts which Ellman regularly displays on his "home" turf - modern Irish literature.

This play seems to be the logical evolution of the play Arsenic and Old Lace. Written in the sixties for the British stage, it was panned in its first production. However a year and a half later, as its author was about to give up hope, a new production opened and met with great success. Loot is fairly brief at only two acts, yet is brimming with its delicious brand of sin. The scenario begins with an atmosphere of apparent darkness but quickly reveals its hilarious undertones. By the end of the play the reader/audience has unconsciously become a part of the morally bereft world which Orton creates. Its no matter though because you are crying with laughter.

From Inside Dustjacket:



The extraordinary and untold story of Britains child migrants is one of 350 years of shaming exploitation. Around 130,000 children some just 3 or 4 years old, were shipped off to distant parts of the Empire, the last as recently as 1967.

for Britain, it was a cheap way of emptying childrens homes and populating the colonies with 'good British stock', for the colonies it was a source of cheap labour. The so-called philanthropists and child 'care' agencies which set up migration schemes in the last century built up the dream of a new life for the 90 000 children exported to Canada from 1860s to the 1920s was often one of unremitting hardship, working a 16-hour day on isolated farmsteads, they were often beaten and mistreated and never saw their families or the shores of Britain again.

But the real shock is that child migration did not end in 1920s. Even after the Second World War, until it ended some 20 years ago, around 10,000 children were transported to Australia, where many were subjected to at best uncaring abandonment, and at worst a regime of appalling cruelty.

Abuse and deception characterised the Australian schemes .Parents were told that their children had been adopted in Britain, chidren were told that their children were brought up in Australian institutions to beleive they were orphans.Now adults , they still break down when they relate their experiences and for many the search for family has become a life-long crusade. Because of the withholding or absence of information, only some are reunited with mothers and relatives they did not know existed---a reunion of happiness and confusion on one side, and guilt and disbelief on the other.

Lost children of the Empire tells the remarkable story of the Childs Migrants Trust , set-up, in 1987, to trace families and to help those involved to come to terms with what has happened.But nothing can explain away the connivance and irresponsibility of the governments and orgs involved in this inhuman chapter of British history

Lost Children of the Empire was the subject of a major ITV documentary screened in May 1989.

Expertly compiled and co-edited by Peter Linehan (Fellow and Dean of St. John's College, Cambridge, England) and Janet L. Nelson (Professor of Medieval History at King's College, London, England), The Medieval World gathers a wealth of informed and informative essays contributed from a wide and diverse variety of educated and articulate scholars concerning such topics as identity, "What the Crusades meant to Europe"; power and power structures; "The King's Counsellors' two Faces: a Portuguese perspective"; elites, organizations, and groups, and much, much more. A wide-ranging and erudite, 745-page compendium, The Medieval World is written and recommended for college-level Medieval Studies reading lists and World History reference shelves.

Mark O'Sullivan is one of ireland's most highly regarded writers for young people. This, his first book, was the very first winner of the prestigious Eilis Dillon Memorial Award for children's literature.

Melody for Nora uses a strong, well-told story to bring alive the often-confusing complexities of Civil War Ireland in a manner rarely seen. The book is very much about people, and the people are interesting and lifelike. But at the same time the book shows the ironies and tragedies inherent in any civil war, with conflicting loyalties and the ghosts of past actions haunting the participants.

Mark O'Sullivan has gone on to write further good books, and his reputation continues to grow, but Melody for Nora remains one of his strongest works. Few first novels are as professionally done, and even fewer as readable. The book, set during a terrible time in Ireland's history, will be one for the history books itself, since it marked the emergence of a major irish writer.

This book of poetry is the first i've ever read for my own pleasure. It's hilarious, thought-provoking and just delightful without seeming stupid. I can relate to everything the poet goes through, and the experiments wtih form are great. There are poems, essays, paragraphs. Overall, an excellent book and i can't wait to read her next one!

This was the first book ever published on the Irish in Missouri (1984). It covers the entire state, but the main focus is on Kansas City, St. Louis, and the Irish Wilderness. This book is great for historians and for genealogists. There is a new edition in soft cover with added and updated pages (264 pages), The original title was "Irish Settlers on the American Frontier". The title of the new edition is Missouri Irish and is just now being released.

I bought this book for a class on Modern African Literature, and I have never been a fan of reading poetry or plays. However, I absolutely loved the collection presented in this book. First off, African plays and poetry are very different that those of other parts of the world, mainly in the way that they are presented and meant to be performed. Because of this, I was able to really envision what was happening; also, I thought the topics of the plays were great, especially those set in South Africa during apartheid. Overall, great book!

This book just takes the cake of being the best book for the lowest price i have ever seen. And its black cover makes me think of the happiness involved in reading it.