List of Irish American writers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of famous Irish American writers.

[edit] Writers

• Raymond Chandler [4] "Born in Chicago in 1888 to Irish parents, Chandler grew up in Ireland, where his mother fled after his father abandoned them. His mother's family moved to England later, in part for his education."
• Kate Chopin [5] "Kate Chopin was born Katherine O'Flaherty on February 8, 1850 of an Irish and French descent in St. Louis, Missouri."
• Mary Higgins Clark [6] "Mary Higgins Clark is of Irish descent. " The Irish are, by nature, storytellers," says Clark, who considers her Irish heritage an important influence on her writing."
• Pat Conroy [7] "says Conroy, his blue Irish eyes hardening, his red Irish cheeks flushing..."
• Elizabeth Cullinan [8] "Among the day's highlights will be a round-table discussion of the Irish-American Experience at 5 p.m. with the writers... Elizabeth Cullinan..."
• Robert Creeley
• J. P. Donleavy [9] "J. P. Donleavy became an Irish citizen in 1967 and now lives on the shores of Lough Owel near Mullingar, County Westmeath."
• Finley Peter Dunne [10] "Born to Irish immigrants on Chicago's West Side in 1867, Finley Peter Dunne began a career as a newspaperman..."
• James T. Farrell [11] "James T. Farrell was an Irish-American writer..."
• F. Scott Fitzgerald [12] "F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St Paul, Minnesota of mixed Southern and Irish descent...."
• Thomas Flanagan [13] "THOMAS FLANAGAN (1923–2002), the grandson of Irish immigrants, grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut..."
• Alex Haley [14] "on my father’s side, both paternal grandparents were the parents of white Irish fathers and black slave mothers. Therefore, I’m part Irish. I can’t feel Irish to save my soul, but it’s a fact."
• Joel Chandler Harris "The son of a 'wandering Irishman (as he once put it), Joel Chandler Harries (1848-1908) was born near Eatonville, Georgia." Edward T. O'Donnell, 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Irish American History, p. 259.
• Henry James "His grandfather, William James, emigrated to America from County Cavan in 1798 and married a woman of Scotch Irish descent." Edward T. O'Donnell, 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Irish American History, p. 259.
• William Kennedy [15] "before Kennedy's Irish brethren left the committee rooms..."
• Michael Patrick MacDonald [16] "His coming-of-age memoir of growing up in the rabidly Irish-Catholic..."
• Cormac McCarthy [17] "In 1965, using this money, he left America on the liner Sylvania, intending to visit the home of his Irish ancestors..."
• Mary McCarthy
• Frank McCourt [18] "Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland..."
• Malachy McCourt [19] "Malachy McCourt was born in Brooklyn, USA and from the age of three was raised in Limerick, Ireland."
• Margaret Mitchell
• Alice McDermott
• Tim O'Brien [20] "Like a lot of us in recent years, Tim O'Brien got to be curious about his Irish heritage..."
• Edwin O'Connor [21] "Edwin O'Connor wrote about the Irish. Not the near mythical folk of the Emerald Isle, but the gritty, down-to-earth, American Irish of which he was one..."
• Flannery O'Connor [22] "Ethnicity Irish"
• Frank O'Hara [23] "O'Hara was ethnically Irish, and it is well known the Irish aren't very far removed from the days..."
• John O'Hara [24] "O'Hara was born to Irish Catholic parents in Pottsville, Pennsylvania..."
• Eugene O'Neill [25] "His parents, both Irish Catholic but from different social classes, always seemed to communicate "in code"..."
• John Boyle O'Reilly [26] "He was greatly beloved for his winning personality and his fervid Irish temperament..."
• Ishmael Reed [27] "He has always been proud of his part Cherokee and part Irish ancestry..."
• Cornelius Ryan [28] "War correspondent, journalist, editor, and author, Cornelius Ryan was born in Dublin, Ireland on June 5, 1920."
• Mary Anne Sadlier "The most prolific Irish American writer in the nineteenth century was arguably Mary Anne Madden Saddlier (1820-1903)." Edward T. O'Donnell, 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Irish American History, p. 261.
• John Sayles (1950 - ) independent film director and writer, frequently takes a small part in his own and other indie films^[1]
• John Patrick Shanley (1950 - ) playwright^[2]
• Mickey Spillane [29] "Spillane, the only child of an Irish bartender and a Scottish mother..."
• Alice Walker [30] "The pagan part connects me to all of my roots - my African, my Scottish, Irish, Native American, all connected at that pagan root."
• Jesse Ball (1978-) poet, novelist: Norris on mother's side, Ball on father's side.
• Luanne Rice [31] novelist. Her father's people were from Dublin, Wicklow, and Cork, and her mother's from Waterford and Tipperary.

[edit] Footnotes