Padraic Colum

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Padraic Colum, photographed by Carl van Vechten (1959)

Padraic Colum ( December 8, 1881 in Collumbkille , County Longford - January 11, 1972 in Enfield , Connecticut ) was an Irish writer and one of the leading figures in the Irish Renaissance . He has written poems, novels, plays, biographies and children's books.

Life

Colum was born into an Irish working-class household in 1881, the first of eight children; his birth name was Patrick Collumb . When his father became unemployed in 1889, he went to the USA to the gold rush in Colorado to profit, while the rest of the family remained in Ireland. When Colum's father returned to Ireland in 1892, the family moved near Dublin , where the father had found work on the local railway station.

Colum's mother died in 1897, after which the family was temporarily torn apart. In 1898 Colum graduated from school and got a job as an accountant with the Irish Railways. He held this position until 1903.

During this time, Colum started to write and met with leading contemporary Irish writers, including WB Yeats , Lady Gregory and Æ . In 1901 he joined the Gaelic League and took the Irish form of his name with Padraic Colum , in 1904 he was one of the founding members of the Abbey Theater . During his regular visits to the National Library of Ireland, he met James Joyce and a lifelong friendship began between the two authors. Colum received a five-year scholarship to University College Dublin from a wealthy American patron .

Colum wrote a number of the first plays performed at the Abbey Theater; his first pieces came out in quick succession in 1902, 1903 and 1905. In 1907, Wild Earth was his first book; it contained many of the poems previously published in a newspaper called The United Irishman . In addition to his other literary activities, Colum also collected Irish folk songs and wrote lyrics for folk songs.

In 1911 Colum founded, among others with his future wife Mary Gunning Maguire, a short-lived literary magazine under the title The Irish Review , in which works by important authors of the Irish Renaissance were printed.

In 1912 Colum and Maguire (called Molly ) married. They lived in the Dublin area and held a literary salon on Tuesdays . In 1914 they made a trip to the USA, which turned into an eight-year stay.

In America, Colum began writing children's books and published several collections of stories for children. A publishing contract for the "production" of children's books gave him financial security for the rest of his life. He also edited three volumes of his versions of Hawaiian fairy tales . He also began to write novels.

From 1930 to 1933 Colum and his wife lived in Paris and Nice , where Colum renewed his friendship with Joyce and typed parts of Finnegans Wake for him. After their time in France, the Colums moved to New York City , where both held teaching positions at Columbia University and the City College of New York and were granted American citizenship in 1945. In 1961 Colum was a recipient of the Regina Medal , an annual award from the American Catholic Library Association for children's authors. Since 1948 he was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters .

In his later plays, Colum adopted forms from the Nō drama. He published a total of 61 books in addition to his plays.

In 1957, Colum's wife Molly died . Colum completed their joint autobiography Our Friend James Joyce ; it was published in 1958. Colum spent his final years alternately in the USA and Ireland. He died in Enfield, Connecticut in 1972 at the age of 90 and was buried near Dublin.

Works (selection)

  • 1902: The Saxon Shillin ' (piece)
  • 1903: Broken Sail (piece)
  • 1905: The Land (piece)
  • 1907: Wild Earth (poems)
  • 1907: The Fiddlers' House (piece)
  • 1910: Thomas Muskerry (piece)
  • 1916: The King of Ireland's Son (re-edition of old Irish fairy tales for children)
  • 1956: German by Konrad Sandkühler: The King's Son of Ireland . Free Spiritual Life Publishing House, Stuttgart. New edition 2016.
  • 1917: Mogu the Wanderer (piece)
  • 1918: The Children's Homer (novel)
  • 1918: Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy
  • 1920: The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter (Roman)
  • 1920: Children of Odin: Nordic Gods and Heroes
  • 1921: The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles (novel)
  • 1922: Anthology of Irish Verse (Editor)
  • 1923: The Six Who Were Left in a Shoe (children's story)
  • 1923: Castle Conquer (novel)
  • 1925: The Voyagers: Being Legends and Romances of Atlantic Discovery
    • also awarded a Newbery Honor from ALA
  • 1929: Balloon (piece)
  • 1932: Poems (collected poems)
  • 1937: The Flying Swans (novel)
  • 1937: The Story of Lowry Maen (epic poem)
  • 1943: The Frenzied Prince (Collection of Irish Fairy Tales)
  • 1958: Our Friend James Joyce (autobiography; with Molly Colum)
  • 1959: Ourselves Alone (biography of Arthur Griffith )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Padraic Colum on "Irish Writers Online"
  2. ↑ Padraic Colum on “Irelandseye.com”
  3. ^ Members: Padraic Colum. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed February 23, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Colum, Padraic
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Collumb, Patrick
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 8, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Collumbkille , County Longford
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 1972
Place of death Enfield, Connecticut , Connecticut