Thursday, February 27, 2014

Born Today: writer James Farrell

James T. Farrell

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the Anglo-Irish novelist, see J. G. Farrell.
James T. Farrell
James T Farrell.jpg
Born James Thomas Farrell
February 27, 1904
Chicago, Illinois
Died August 22, 1979 (aged 75)
New York City
Notable work(s) Studs Lonigan
James Thomas Farrell (February 27, 1904 - August 22, 1979) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet. One of his most famous works was the Studs Lonigan trilogy, which was made into a film in 1960 and into a television miniseries in 1979. The trilogy was voted number 29 on the Modern Library's list of the 100 best novels of the 20th century.

Biography

Farrell was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a large Irish-American family which included siblings Earl, Joseph, Helen, John and Mary. In addition, there were several other siblings who died during childbirth, as well as one who died from the great influenza epidemic in 1917. His father was a teamster, and his mother a domestic servant. His parents were too poor to provide for him, and he went to live with his grandparents when he was three years old.[1] Farrell attended Mt. Carmel High School, then known as St. Cyril, with future Egyptologist Richard Anthony Parker. He then later attended the University of Chicago. He began writing when he was 21 years old. A novelist, journalist, and short story writer known for his realistic descriptions of the working class South Side Irish, especially in the novels about the character Studs Lonigan. Farrell based his writing on his own experiences, particularly those that he included in his celebrated "Danny O'Neill Pentology" series of five novels.
Among the writers who acknowledged Farrell as an inspiration was Norman Mailer:
"Mr. Mailer intended to major in aeronautical engineering, but by the time he was a sophomore, he had fallen in love with literature. He spent the summer reading and rereading James T. Farrell's “Studs Lonigan,” John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath” and John Dos Passos’s “U.S.A.,” and he began, or so he claimed, to set himself a daily quota of 3,000 words of his own, on the theory that this was the way to get bad writing out of his system. By 1941 he was sufficiently purged to win the Story magazine prize for best short story written by an undergraduate."[2]

Politics

Farrell was also active in Trotskyist politics and joined the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). He came to agree with Albert Goldman and Felix Morrows' criticism of the SWP and Fourth International management. With Goldman, he ended his participation with the group in 1946 to join the Workers' Party.

Within the Workers' Party, Goldman and Farrell worked closely. In 1948, they developed criticisms of its policies, claiming that the party should endorse the Marshall Plan and also Norman Thomas' presidential candidacy. Having come to believe that only capitalism could defeat Stalinism, they left to join the Socialist Party of America. During the late 1960s, disenchanted with the political "center", while impressed with the SWP's involvement in the Civil Rights and US anti-Vietnam War movements, he reestablished communication with his former comrades of two decades earlier. Farrell attended one or more SWP-sponsored Militant Forum events (probably in NYC), but never rejoined the Trotskyist movement.

Marriages

Farrell was married twice. His first wife was Dorothy Butler. His second wife (from 1941 to 1955 when they divorced) was stage actress Hortense Alden. He and Alden had two sons, Kevin and John.

Legacy

Studs Terkel, the Chicago-based historian, adopted the name of "Studs" from Farrell's famous character Studs Lonigan.[3]
The Studs Lonigan trilogy was voted number 29 on the Modern Library's list of the 100 best novels of the 20th century.[4]
On the 100th anniversary of Farrell's birth, Norman Mailer was a panelist at the New York Public Library's "James T. Farrell Centenary Celebration" on February 25, 2004 along with Pete Hamill, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and moderator Donald Yannella. They discussed Farrell's life and legacy.

Bibliography

  • Young Lonigan (1932)
  • Gas-House McGinty (1933)
  • Calico Shoes (1934)
  • The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan (1934)
  • Guillotine Party and Other Stories (1935)
  • Judgment Day (1935)
  • A Note on Literary Criticism (1936)
  • A World I Never Made (1936)
  • Can All This Grandeur Perish? and Other Stories (1937)
  • No Star Is Lost (1938)
  • Tommy Gallagher's Crusade (1939)
  • Father and Son (1940)
  • The Bill of Rights in danger!: the meaning of the Minneapolis convictions [New York] : Civil Rights Defense Committee, (1941)
  • Decision (1941)
  • Ellen Rogers (1941)
  • "$1000 a Week and Other Stories" (1942)
  • My Days of Anger (1943)
  • "To Whom It May Concern and Other Stories" (1944)
  • Who are the 18 prisoners in the Minneapolis Labor Case?: how the Smith "Gag" Act has endangered workers rights and free speech [New York] : Civil Rights Defense Committee, (1944)
  • "The League of Frightened Philistines and Other Papers" (1945)
  • Bernard Clare (1946)
  • "When Boyhood Dreams Come True and Other Stories" (1946)
  • "The Life Adventurous and Other Stories" (1947)
  • Literature and Morality (1947)
  • Truth and myth about America New York, N.Y. : Rand School Press : Distributed by the Rand Bookstore (1949)
  • The Road Between (1949)
  • An American Dream Girl (1950)
  • The Name Is Fogarty: Private Papers on Public Matters (1950)
  • This Man and This Woman (1951)
  • Yet Other Waters (1952)
  • The Face of Time (1953)
  • Reflections at Fifty and Other Essays (1954)
  • French Girls Are Vicious and Other Stories (1955)
  • A Dangerous Woman and Other Stories (1957)
  • My Baseball Diary (1957)
  • It Has Come To Pass (1958)
  • Boarding House Blues (1961)
  • Side Street and Other Stories (1961)
  • "Sound of a City" (1962)
  • The Silence of History (1963)
  • What Time Collects (1964)
  • A Glass of Milk, in "Why Work Series" editor Gordon Lish (1966)
  • Lonely for the Future (1966)
  • When Time Was Born (1966)
  • New Year's Eve/1929 (1967)
  • A Brand New Life (1968)
  • Childhood Is Not Forever (1969)
  • Judith (1969) Signed limited edition, 300 printed
  • Invisible Swords (1971)
  • Judith and Other Stories (1973)
  • The Dunne Family (1976)
  • Olive and Mary Anne (1977)
  • The Death of Nora Ryan (1978)

Posthumous editions


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