| ID | 22803 |
|---|---|
| Collection | Edna O'Brien Papers |
| Collection Description | Edna O’Brien was born in Tuamgraney, Co Clare on 15th December 1930 to Michael O’Brien and Lena O’Brien (neé Cleary). She attended the National School in Scariff and the Convent of Mercy at Loughrea, before moving to Dublin to study pharmacy. In 1954 O’Brien married the Czech/Irish writer Ernest Gébler and the couple moved to London, where they had two sons, Carlo and Sasha. The marriage dissolved in the 1960s. Ernest Gébler died in 1997. Edna O’Brien published her first novel, The Country Girls, in 1960. It met with much criticism and was swiftly banned by the Irish Censorship Board for its perceived explicit sexual content. Her following five books published during the 1960s met the same fate at the hands of the Irish Censorship Board. O’Brien became a controversial figure within the context of a conservative Catholic Ireland, a legacy that some would argue has impinged upon the critical reception of her work long after the disappearance of such moral indignation [UCD Special Collections]. |
| Collection Web Address | https://www.ucd.ie/specialcollections/archives/obrien/ |
| Reference | OB |
| Description | Correspondence both of a professional and personal nature with a large number of individuals including Cherie Blair, Harold Bloom, Hilary Clinton, John Osborne, Antonia Fraser, Harold Pinter, Jane Fonda, John Major, and Seamus Heaney. Notes, drafts, and proofs of novels Wild Decembers, In the Forest and Light of Evening. Also contains research and related materials for these titles. Proof copies and/or drafts of novels Girls in Their Married Bliss, A Pagan Place, The High Road, and Time and Tide. Notes, drafts, and proofs of biography, James Joyce, and other works relating to Joyce. Plays, screenplay and critical work regarding William Butler Yeats. Critical work/articles regarding Samuel Beckett. Drafts of plays including Family Butchers, Riding Horse with Ivan McTaggert, Virginia, The Country Girls, Triptych, Madame Cassandra, Trojan Women, Iphigenia. Screenplays including Girls in their Married Bliss and Down by the River. |
| Access | The materials in this collection are available by appointment only to research students, reaching staff and scholars. Research students should have a letter of recommendation from their supervisor. |
| Date | c.1960-2006 |
| Century | 20th, 21st |
| Keywords | |
| Note | A descriptive list is available here. |
| Repository Name | UCD Special Collections |
| Address | James Joyce Library University College Dublin Belfield Dublin 4 |
| Eircode | D04 R7R0 |
| Telephone | (01) 716-7149 |
| Email Address | special.collections@ucd.ie |
| Repository Web Address | https://www.ucd.ie/specialcollections/ |
| Comment | Some of the information listed from this repository has been extracted from lists available in the archive. These lists were compiled by library staff and we are grateful for their assistance. Where partial or no lists were available, staff of the Women's History Project constructed an outline list. Due to time constraints, not all items in this repository were examined individually. |
| latitude | 53.30671 |
| longitude | -6.22347 |