Sean O'Casey papers (Collection)
Collection — Document box: 1
Identifier: SC-2019-04
Twenty-six letters from Sean O'Casey to Georgie Cooper.
Dates
- 1956-08 - 1963-11
Creator
- O'Casey, Sean, 1880-1964 (Person)
Physical Description
Good.
Extent
1 box
Biographical / Historical
Sean O'Casey was born John Casey on March 31, 1880, the youngest of a large family living in a Dublin slum. He suffered all his life from painful, ulcerated eyeballs and could not read or write until he was 13, having been forced to begin lessons by an interested Irish clergyman.
Not until O'Casey had experienced life as a political rebel, poet, laborer, and fighter for Irish independence did he finally discover his true profession as a playwright. His first three attempts at drama were rejected by the Abbey Theatre, but his fourth, The Shadow of a Gunman (1923), was an immediate success. His later plays, Cathleen Listens In (1923) and the tragicomic masterpiece Juno and the Paycock (1924), saved the Abbey from near bankruptcy and placed it on a secure financial footing.
His juxtaposition of various techniques and genres in one play—farce, realistic comedy, satire, melodrama, expressionism, tragedy—was aimed at breaking down the forms and conventions of dramatic realism.
Source: Sean O'Casey." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed., vol. 11, Gale, 2004, pp. 459-460. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Accessed 12 Mar. 2019.
Not until O'Casey had experienced life as a political rebel, poet, laborer, and fighter for Irish independence did he finally discover his true profession as a playwright. His first three attempts at drama were rejected by the Abbey Theatre, but his fourth, The Shadow of a Gunman (1923), was an immediate success. His later plays, Cathleen Listens In (1923) and the tragicomic masterpiece Juno and the Paycock (1924), saved the Abbey from near bankruptcy and placed it on a secure financial footing.
His juxtaposition of various techniques and genres in one play—farce, realistic comedy, satire, melodrama, expressionism, tragedy—was aimed at breaking down the forms and conventions of dramatic realism.
Source: Sean O'Casey." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed., vol. 11, Gale, 2004, pp. 459-460. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Accessed 12 Mar. 2019.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
A gift of the patrons of the library.
Physical Description
Good.
Creator
- O'Casey, Sean, 1880-1964 (Person)
- Title
- Sean O'Casey papers
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Patricia Prestinary
- Date
- 2019-03-12
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- English
Repository Details
Part of the University Archives and Special Collections Repository
Contact:
Pollak Library South
800 N. State College Blvd.
Fullerton CA 92831-3599 USA US
(657) 278-4751
uasc@fullerton.libanswers.com
Pollak Library South
800 N. State College Blvd.
Fullerton CA 92831-3599 USA US
(657) 278-4751
uasc@fullerton.libanswers.com