Sean O'Casey: Writer at Work - A Biography

Sean O'Casey was the quintessential Dublin playwright. In critical works that include his Dublin Trilogy - The Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock, and The Plough and the Stars - he portrayed the traumatic birth of a nation and delved into the Irish national character. Christopher Murray's Sean O'Casey: Writer at Work takes a fresh look at the last of the great writers of the Irish literary revival. O'Casey was a self-made man of letters torn between a humanist vision of life rooted in his Dublin childhood and a utopian loyalty to the Soviet Union. Rich in original material, Sean O'Casey reconstructs a life committed to writing as a moral endeavour. Murray vividly establishes `O'Casey's Ireland,' the Dublin of O'Casey's childhood, and the political situation in Ireland. Murray further explores O'Casey's rise as an international figure - much of his income after leaving Ireland came from the United States - and contrasts his mature socialist work with the early nationalistic writing. In Sean O'Casey Murray paints a dazzling picture of a passionate and generous artist who is among the best dramatists of the twentieth century.