Leonard Wibberley

Leonard Patrick O'Connor Wibberley (April 9, 1915 – November 22, 1983): a prolific and versatile Irish-born author who spent most of his life in the United States. Wibberley published, under his name and also three pen-names, over one hundred books. He is best known for five satirical novels about an imaginary country Grand Fenwick--particularly for the first of these, The Mouse That Roared.

Wibberley's adult and juvenile publications cut across the categories of fictional novels, history and biography. He also wrote short stories (several published in The Saturday Evening Post), plays and long verse poems. He produced more than fifty juvenile books, for example (with Farrar, Straus and Giroux) the seven-volume Treegate series of historical fiction, which takes place during the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, and a four-volume life of Thomas Jefferson. As Patrick O'Connor, he wrote the Black Tiger series on auto racing for young adults. Throughout the decades, scenes and senses of the sea play important parts in both Wibberley's fiction and nonfiction. A keen yachtsman, he published several accounts of his ocean racing. He wrote a mystery series, and is classified as a science fiction writer.

Three of Wibberley's novels have been made into movies: The Mouse That Roared (1959), The Mouse on the Moon (1963), The Hands of Cormac Joyce (1972).

Contents

Biography

Leonard Wibberley was born in Dublin, Ireland and educated in Ireland and England. He was a son of agronomy professor and author Thomas Wibberley,[1] upon whose death, at the depth of the Great Depression, his son left school to work at various jobs, including busking in the streets with his violin. He began a long career in newspapers as copy boy for the Sunday Dispatch, London, progressed to reporter for the Daily Mirror, London, and then editor (among other jobs) in Trinidad, before going to the United States in 1943, where, in his late twenties, he was both foreign correspondent for the Evening News, London, and cable dispatch editor for the Associated Press in New York City, during World War II.

In 1947 Wibberley moved permanently to California as foreign correspondent, then reporter, for the Los Angeles Times. While working for that newspaper he began his novel-writing career. After leaving the Times he was briefly a reporter for the Turlock Journal, until the appearance of his first novel, The King's Beard (1952), at age thirty-seven. He then settled permanently in Hermosa Beach, California as a full-time author. From that date, he published over 100 books, at a rate of at least one a year and averaging more than three. Many of these were with three publishers: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; William Morrow; Dodd, Mead and Company. With their loss of independence or disappearance, none of these houses kept his titles in print. The best-known of Wibberley's books, The Mouse that Roared, was kept in print for some time by Bantam Books and then Four Walls Eight Windows.[2]

Wibberley also took part in plays, did local radio readings, and had a syndicated column, "The Wibberley Pages". His two marriages (in Trinidad to the later dance writer Olga Maynard, in California to Hazel Holton) produced seven children, including, from the first, philosophy author Patrick Maynard, from the second, film writer Cormac Wibberley. A posthumous book of his last short writings has appeared (see below). Leonard Wibberley donated manuscripts and proofs of many of his works (some in alternative form) to "The Leonard Wibberley Archive" of the library collections of the University of Southern California, where they are available.[3]

Bibliographical notes

All references are to first editions, usually hardcover. Paperback editions were often issued by different presses. For example, Hound of the Sea appeared in 1969 from Ives Washburn, while the first paperback edition was not until 1978, by David McKay, New York. Sometimes changes are made: Beware of the Mouse (Putnam, 1958) was printed in paperback by Borgo Press in 1978, with new illustrations and an Afterword. British editions of some of these books are also sometimes distinct, even differently titled. For example, The Testament of Theophilus: A Novel of Christ and Caesar (Morrow, 1973) appeared in London in 1974 as "The Merchant of Rome" (same subtitle), with Cassell; the British edition of The Mouse that Roared (London: Robert Hale, 1955) bore the author's original title idea, "The Wrath of Grapes". Macdonald (London) is the most usual British publisher of his books.

A number of Leonard Wibberley's books have been translated, some into several languages. For example, Mrs. Searwood's Secret Weapon (Little, Brown, 1954) was translated as Feu l'indien de Madame (Paris: Fasquelle Éditeurs, 1957), with illustrations by Jean Bellus; A Pact with Satan (Dodd, Mead, 1960) was translated as Un Pacto con Satanás (Barcelona: Editorial Molino, 1971).

Some of his works appeared in magazines before or after book publication. The Mouse that Roared was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post for six consecutive weeks, beginning Christmas Day, 1954. In January 1960, the complete novelette, "The Hands of Cormac Joyce", appeared in the Post (incl. por. of author), where "The Time of the Lamb" was a Christmas feature for December. Meeting with a Great Beast (William Morrow, 1971) appeared in Reader's Digest Condensed Books: v. 90 (Summer 1972). Short plays—sometimes adaptations of his fiction by Wibberley or others—are listed by Dramatic Publishing, particularly for school productions.

Editions of many of Leonard Wibberley's writings are illustrated, in cover design, title page or content by artists including Enrico Arno, Jean Bellus, Gareth Floyd, Clyde N. Geary, Philip Gough, Fritz Kredel, Siné.

Published adult writing

Short stories, novellas

The Saturday Evening Post

The "Mouse" series

Title Year Publisher
The Mouse That Roared 1955 New York: William Morrow
Beware of the Mouse 1958 New York: Putnam
The Mouse on the Moon 1962 New York: William Morrow
The Mouse on Wall Street 1969 New York: William Morrow
The Mouse that Saved the West 1981 New York: William Morrow

Other novels

As Leonard Holton: "Father Joseph Bredder" mystery series, Dodd, Mead (New York)

Non-fiction

Published youth (juvenile) writing

As Christopher Webb, with Funk & Wagnalls, New York

As Patrick O'Connor

"Black Tiger" series, E. M. Hale (Eau Claire, Wisc.)

Ives Washburn (New York)

Farrar, Straus & Giroux Ariel youth books

"John Treegate" series (originally four)

Non-fictional F S & G books

Life of Thomas Jefferson historical novels

Other juvenile fiction

Collected short works

Plays and long verse pieces

Posthumously published short works

Listen to

Notes

  1. ^ Professor of Agriculture, University College, Cork (one of the three constituents of the National University of Ireland--see Cork (city)) and Queen's University Belfast. The elder Wibberley was an experimental agronomist, who wrote several books arguing his methods and inventions, by which he believed the UK might feed itself, absent empire: notably Farming on Factory Lines: continuous cropping for the large farmer (London, 1919). His dates (1882-1932) show the age, sixteen, at which his son was obliged to leave school to go to work. The latter's second name, "Patrick", was his confirmation name; his third a matronymic also used as nom de plume: from his mother's, "Sinaid O'Connor". He was known as "Pat" in his pre-California life; thereafter as "Leonard".
  2. ^ Wibberley's over twenty-five titles with the premier, independent Farrar, Straus & Giroux are part of a notable story of independent publishing in the USA. (A short, generalizable, account of FS & G's history is available: [1].) Due to the writer's and publishers' prominences, and these titles frequently appearing in the category "juvenile" (whether descriptive or not), most are available in public libraries, and used copies are for sale on the web. The Mouse that Roared was kept in print for some time by Bantam, and from late 2002 by the independent Four Walls Eight Windows press, and currently also by Da Capo Press. Saturday Evening Post issues are available on websites. For Wibberley's books, the online Alibris site is useful--accurate, thorough and well-searchable, if not complete--for both purchase and bibliographical research.
  3. ^ For more detailed biographical information and access to the USC manuscripts, see: http://www.usc.edu/libraries/archives/arc/libraries/collections/records/173home.html
  4. ^ http://www.bobclaster.com/