4.Account of Kavanagh’s Dublin convalescence is based on MGC and ‘On a Liberal Education’, X, Vol. 2, No. 2, August 1961.
5.Ewart Milne, ‘London Encounter’ in Peter Kavanagh (ed.), Man and Poet, 157–8.
6.Irish Writing, Summer 1956.
7.This portrait was shown to me by Andrew O’Connor.
8.Full discussion of the Yugoslav match incident in John Cooney, John Charles McQuaid, 310–15.
9.In Eugene Platt, A Patrick Kavanagh Anthology, 28–9.
Chapter 21
Based in part on conversations with Sheila Bradshaw, Anthony Cronin, the late Thérèse Cronin, Mrs Farrelly, John McGahern, T. P. McKenna, Andrew O’Connor, Joan Ryan and Jimmy Swift.
1.All Macmillan correspondence referred to in this chapter is in Macmillan Archive, BL.
2.IT, 28 January 1956.
3.Autumn 1956.
4.PK to Peter K, 19 March 1956.
5.John Jordan, ‘PK’s Point of View’, Hibernia, 5 November 1971.
6.Leo Holohan, RTV Guide, 26 October 1962.
7.PK to Peter K, 15 May 1956.
8.In this connection he quoted the sequence ‘I sent a letter to my love’ from George Barker’s True Confession and praised Barker’s poetry.
9.PK’s account of this holiday in Creation, July 1957.
10.Based on Jordan, loc. cit. and on Arts Council Minutes, NA. For more about The Forgiven Plough see the Introduction to APC.
11.Jim Craven, ‘The ricks are all piled up’, Dundalk Democrat, 9 December 1967.
12.Introduction to Poisoned Lands (1977), 9.
13.John McGahern, A review of Peter Kavanagh (ed.), Patrick Kavanagh, Man and Poet, Evening Herald, July 1987; ‘The Solitary Reader’, Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1, July 1991, 21–2.
14.New York visit described by PK in Creation, June and December 1957; by Patric Farrell, ‘A Memoir’ in Peter Kavanagh (ed.), Patrick Kavanagh, Man and Poet, 163–7; by Margaret T. O’Brien, ‘With Living Eyes’; ibid. 330; by Louis Simpson, ‘An Irish Poet’, ibid. 359–60.
15.Veronica Jane O’Mara (ed.), PS . . . Patrick Swift, 143–4.
16.RTV Guide, 2 July 1965.
17.IFJ, 30 June 1959.
Chapter 22
Based in part on conversations with Andrew O’Connor, Joan Ryan, Annette Sheedy and Larry Sheedy.
1.John Jordan Papers, NL.
2.He promulgated this myth on numerous occasions, most notably in MGC and SP.
3.PK to Peter K, 5 December 1957, LF, 206.
4.PK to Peter K, 21 May 1957, LF, 201.
5.John McGahern, ‘The Bird Swift’, PS. . . Patrick Swift, 149–50.
6.A. A. Kelly (ed.), The Letters of Liam O’Flaherty, 324.
7.Leo Holohan, ‘A Tribute’, IT, 1 December 1967.
8.Melosina Lenox-Conyngham (ed.), Diaries of Ireland, 259–61. I also listened to a slightly different version of this narrative as a taped lecture, courtesy of Frank McEvoy.
9.The National Observer, January 1960.
10.Based in part on Larry Sheedy, ‘Patrick Kavanagh, An Appreciation’, IFJ, 9 December 1967.
11.Celia K, ‘Patrick Kavanagh: A Memoir’, LF, 23–4.
12.IFJ, 22 November 1958.
Chapter 23
Based in part on conversations with Leland Bardwell, Marie Louise Colbert, Anthony Cronin, Thérèse Cronin, Sheila Gillespie, Niall Lawlor, Helen Moloney, Joan Ryan, Jimmy Swift, Macdara Woods, and on Rosemarie Rowley’s recorded interview with Katherine Kavanagh (née Moloney).
1.References to Thomas Blackburn’s dealings with PK in this chapter are based on the Blackburn letters in the Longmans Archives, RUL and letters in KA.
2.Anthony Cronin, Dead as Doornails, 168–72 and IFJ, 18 April 1959.
3.National Observer, January 1960.
4.X, November 1959.
5.IFJ, 2 January 1960.
6.A. A. Kelly (ed.), The Letters of Liam O’Flaherty, 358.
7.Alexis FitzGerald to PK, 17 June 1959, KA.
8.Quoted in IT, 16 August 1960.
9.PK to Anthony Cronin, 25 July 1959, KA.
10.Copy in KA, Kav/B/87.
11.IFJ, 21 November 1959.
12.Anthony Cronin, op. cit. 177.
13.J. P. Donleavy, Ireland In All Her Sins And in Some of Her Graces, 208–11.
14.PK to McQuaid, 15 November 1959, MCQA.
15.Katherine Swift, ‘My Father’, Veronica Jane O’Mara (ed.), PS . . . Patrick Swift, 169.
16.Anthony Cronin, op. cit. 177–9.
17.PK to McQuaid, 15 November 1959, MCQA.
18.The Katherine Moloney/PK correspondence is in KA.
19.A. A. Kelly, op. cit. 358.
20.Cronin and PK resumed their friendship and met frequently when both were in Dublin in the mid 1960s but it was ‘never glad, confident morning again’.
21.Sean Treacy, A Smell of Broken Glass, 109–113.
Chapter 24
Based in part on conversations with Leland Bardwell, Bonnie Cotter, Patricia Collins (formerly Mrs John Ryan), Anthony Cronin, Paul Durcan, Martin Green, Noel Henry, Jim McGuinness, T. P. McKenna, Priscilla and Desmond MacNamara, John Montague, Esther O’Brolcháin, Larry Sheedy, Fr Tom Stack, Macdara Woods, and on Rosemarie Rowley’s recorded interview with Katherine Kavanagh (née Moloney).
1.Katherine Swift, ‘My Father’, PS . . . Patrick Swift, 169.
2.Letters from Noel Henry to me, 1 December 1997, 16 January 1998.
3.PK to Peter K, 18 August 1961, KA.
4.Frances Spalding, Stevie Smith, A Critical Biography, 263.
5.Letter from Green to Montague, quoted in John Montague, ‘Patrick Kavanagh: A Speech from the Dock’, The Figure in the Cave, 140.
6.Martin Green, ‘Kavanagh Plain’, Books Ireland, September 1987; John Montague, loc. cit.
7.Leo Holohan, ‘A Tribute’, IT, 1 December 1967.
8.IFJ, 31 March 1962.
9.Larry Sheedy, That’s Another Story, 14–19.
10.Michael Hartnett, ‘The Dublin Literary World’, IT, 13 November 1968.
11.IFJ, 9 March 1963.
12 James Liddy, Introduction to This Was Arena.
13.PK to Liam Miller, 16 August 1963, KA.
14.Philip J. Pocock’s account of photographing Kavanagh and its Dolmen Press sequel are based on his undated letter to Fritz Gruber.
15.The two novels, The Good Son and Michael MacOdge, which Kavanagh was revising in 1964, were edited, amended and augmented by Peter Kavanagh and published as one novel, By Night Unstarred, The Goldsmith Press, The Curragh, Ireland 1977.
16.PK to Peter K, 21 January 1964, KA; LF, 243.
17.When he applied for a driving licence in 1964, he gave his age as ‘Over 21’.
Chapter 25
Based in part on conversations with Leland Bardwell, Anthony Cronin, Martin Green, Vivien Igoe (née Veale), Brendan Kennelly, Brian Lynch, John Montague, Joan Ryan, Constance Short, Macdara Woods.
1.Annie K to Peter K, April 1965, KA; LF, 279.
2.Copy of letter in KA.
3.James Liddy, Introduction to This Was Arena.
4.Martin Green, ‘Kavanagh Plain’, Books Ireland, September 1987.
5.Reprinted in Martello, Spring 1990, 26–31.
6.John Montague, ‘Patrick Kavanagh: A Speech from the Dock’, The Figure in the Cave, Dublin 1989, 141.
7.Quotations from reviews in the New Statesman (31 July 1964), The Observer (26 July 1964) and The Times Literary Supplement (27 August 1964).
8.LF, 260. The photostated application for US copyright in Recent Poems in KA is in Patrick Kavanagh’s name.
9.Peter K to PK, 16 and 24 October 1964, KA; LF, 267–8.
10.Niall Carroll, ‘I’d love to meet Ian Paisley, says Patrick Kavanagh’, Sunday Press, 11 October 1964, and ‘A Half-One with Paddy Kavanagh’, Sunday Independent, 9 March 1975.
11.RTV Guide, 22 January 1965.
12.James Liddy, ‘A Memoir of Parnassus’, Peter Kavanagh (ed.), Patrick Kavanagh,
Man and Poet, 299.
13.Annie K to Peter K, 29 March 1965, KA; LF, 279.
14.Donald Torchiana, ‘Some Dublin Afterthoughts’, Triquarterly, 4, Autumn 1965; Chicago Daily News, 2 January 1966; ‘Kavanagh’s America’, Interview with Máirín O’Farrell, Hibernia, July 1966; ‘A Letter from Over the Sea’, RTV Guide, 21 May 1965. PK wrote about the rest of his American trip in RTV Guide, 28 May, 4 June and 25 June 1965.
15.SK, 378.
16.Anthony Cronin, No Laughing Matter, 244.
17.RTV Guide, 15 October 1965.
18.Desmond O’Grady, ‘Patrick Kavanagh in Rome, 1965’, Poetry Ireland Review, Nos 34 and 35, 1992.
19.Hugh Leonard, ‘A memorial with smaltz’, Review of Remembering How We Stood, Sunday Independent, 14 September 1975.
20.Eavan Boland, ‘Memories of Kavanagh’, IT, 20 November 1981.
21.James Liddy, ‘A Memoir of Katherine Barry Moloney Kavanagh’, London Magazine, February/March 1999.
22.Caroline Walsh, ‘Parsons of Baggot Street Bridge’, IT, 2 March 1982; Gerard Quinn, ‘Paddy Kavanagh’s Office’, Martello, Spring 1984.
Chapter 26
Based in part on conversations with Leland Bardwell, Jim Byrne, Marie Louise Colbert, Anthony Cronin, the late Thérèse Cronin, Eamon Delaney, Paul Durcan, Mrs Farrelly, Leo Henry, Maurice Henry, Vivien Igoe (née Veale), Aidan Kelly, the late Deirdre Kelly, Brendan Kennelly, Brian Lynch, Helen Moloney, John Montague, John O’Grady, Eoin and Joan Ryan, Elinor Wiltshire, Macdara Woods; also on a recorded interview with Katherine Kavanagh (née Moloney) by Rosemarie Rowley.
1.James Liddy, ‘A Memoir of Katherine Barry Moloney Kavanagh’, London Magazine, February/March 1999.
2.PK to Katherine, 25 February 1966 and Katherine to PK, 30 March 1966, KA.
3.John Montague, ‘A Speech from the Dock’ in The Figure in the Cave, 141.
4.13 April 1966.
5.Annie K to Peter K, 20, 27 April 1966, KA; LF, 280–81.
6.Annie K to Peter K, 20 May 1966, KA; LF, 281.
7.RTV Guide, 24 June and 1 July 1966.
8.ibid. 5 August 1966.
9.ibid. 7 October 1966 and SK, 382.
10.Elinor Wiltshire’s photographs are in the National Photographic Archive, Dublin.
11.PK to Jim O’Toole, 4 April 1961, copy or unposted letter in KA.
12.Richard Riordan to John Jordan, 17 October 1966, John Jordan Papers, NL.
13.Variety, 14 December 1966; Maureen O’Farrell, Hibernia, December 1966.
14.Seamus Kelly, IT, 23 November 1966.
15.Katherine Moloney to John Jordan, 14 December 1966, JJP, NL.
16.Richard Riordan to John Jordan, 17 January 1967, JJP, NL.
17.Letter from John McGahern to me, 6 December 1997.
18.PK to Tim O’Keeffe, 21 January 1967, KA.
19.Richard Riordan to John Jordan, 6 April 1967, NL.
20.‘Elgy Gillespie Listened to Katherine Kavanagh’, IT, 30 November 1977.
21.John O’Grady, Sheila O’Grady’s nephew and executor, kindly showed me these three items which she had kept and treasured.
22.Most people who were at the wedding have somewhat similar recollections. For James Liddy’s account, loc. cit. 22.
23.Elinor Wiltshire to Peter Kavanagh, 20 April 1967, in Peter Kavanagh (ed.), Love’s Tortured Headland.
24.ibid. Letters from his sisters Annie, Mary, Celia and Sissie to Peter K, 20 April through May 1967.
25.Elgy Gillespie, loc. cit.
26.ibid.
27.On tape in TCD Library.
28.Brian Lynch, ‘A Half-Open Letter to Paul Durcan’ in Colm Tóibín (ed.), The Kilfenora Teaboy, 143–54; Durcan’s first solo collection would have been published by MacGibbon and Kee had not its Irish list been dropped when the firm was taken over by Granada; ‘On Waterloo Road’ is from Greetings to Our Friends in Brazil, London 1999, 132–4.
29.Eavan Boland, ‘Memories of Kavanagh’, IT, 20 November 1981.
30.J. B. Keane, ‘JBK tells of last meeting’, Evening Press, 30 November 1967.
31.Michael Hartnett, Collected Poems, Vol. 1, 90; ‘the doctor’ is said to be Richard Riordan and ‘the law’, the barrister, Patrick McEntee, a close friend of Kavanagh at the time.
Chapter 27
Based in part on a recorded interview with Katherine Kavanagh (née Moloney) by Rosemarie Rowley.
1.John Ryan, Remembering How We Stood, 121–2.
2.Peter Kavanagh, Beyond Affection, 187.
3.Richard Riordan to John Jordan, 29 November 1967, JJP, NL.
4.Peter Kavanagh, op. cit. 188.
5.Published in IT, 1 December 1967.
6.This account of the funeral is partly based on David Wright, ‘Patrick Kavanagh, 1905–1967’, London Magazine, April 1968, and ‘On the Margin’, David Wright, Selected Poems, Manchester 1976, 39–40.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books by Patrick Kavanagh
Ploughman and Other Poems, Macmillan, London 1936.
The Green Fool, Michael Joseph, London 1938, and Harper and Brothers, New York 1939.
The Great Hunger, The Cuala Press, Dublin 1942. (Variant version of Parts i to iv as ‘The Old Peasant’ in Horizon, January 1942.)
A Soul for Sale, Macmillan, London 1947.
Tarry Flynn, The Pilot Press, London 1948, and Devin-Adair, New York 1949.
Recent Poems, The Peter Kavanagh Hand Press, New York 1958.
Come Dance with Kitty Stobling and Other Poems, Longmans, Green and Co., London 1960, and Dufour Publishers, Pennsylvania 1964.
Collected Poems, MacGibbon and Kee, London 1964, and Devin-Adair, New York 1964.
Self-Portrait, The Dolmen Press, Dublin 1964, and Dufour Publishers, Pennsylvania 1964.
Collected Pruse, MacGibbon and Kee, London 1967.
November Haggard, Uncollected Prose and Verse of Patrick Kavanagh, selected, arranged and edited by Peter Kavanagh, The Peter Kavanagh Hand Press, New York 1971.
Patrick Kavanagh, The Complete Poems, Collected, arranged and edited by Peter Kavanagh, The Peter Kavanagh Hand Press, New York 1972, and The Goldsmith Press Ltd, Newbridge, Ireland 1984.
By Night Unstarred, An Autobiographical Novel, edited by Peter Kavanagh, The Goldsmith Press, The Curragh, Ireland 1977.
Lough Derg, Martin, Brian and O’Keeffe, London 1978, and The Goldsmith Press, The Curragh, Ireland 1978.
Selected Poems, edited with an Introduction and Notes by Antoinette Quinn, Penguin Books, London 1996.
The Complete Poems of Patrick Kavanagh, with Commentary by Peter Kavanagh, The Kavanagh Hand Press Inc., New York 1999.
A Poet’s Country: Selected Prose, edited with an Introduction and Notes by Antoinette Quinn, Lilliput Press, Dublin 2003.
Columns in Journals
‘City Commentary’, Irish Press, 14 September 1942 to 18 February 1944 (twice weekly).
‘The Literary Scene’, The Standard, 26 February to 11 June 1943 (weekly).
Film reviewing under various headings, The Standard, 22 February 1946 to 8 July 1949 (weekly).
‘Diary’, Envoy, December 1949 to July 1951 (monthly).
Kavanagh’s Weekly, with Peter Kavanagh, 12 April to 5 July 1952.
Creation, June 1957 to December 1957 (monthly).
Irish Farmers’ Journal, 14 June 1958 to 9 March 1963 (weekly).
National Observer, July 1959 to January 1960 (monthly).
RTV Guide, 17 January 1964 to 30 October 1967 (weekly).
Record
Almost Everything, written and spoken by Patrick Kavanagh, Ceirnini Cladaigh, Dublin 1965.
Introductions
Introduction to W. Steuart Trench, Realities of Irish Life, MacGibbon and Kee, London 1966.
Preface to The Autobiography of William Carleton, MacGibbon and Kee, London 1968.
Essays, Articles and Reviews
These are listed in Garden of the Golden Apples, A Bibliography of Patrick Kavanagh, compiled and researched by Peter Kavanagh, The Peter Kavanagh Hand Press,
New York 1972, and in John Nemo, ‘Patrick Kavanagh: A Bibliography of Materials by and about Patrick Kavanagh’, Irish University Review, Spring 1973.
Some essays and articles have been reprinted in
The Journal of Irish Literature, A Patrick Kavanagh Number, edited by John Nemo, January 1977.
Peter Kavanagh (ed.), Patrick Kavanagh: Man and Poet, The Goldsmith Press, The Curragh, Ireland 1987.
Correspondence
Lapped Furrows, Correspondence 1933–1967 between Patrick and Peter Kavanagh with Other Documents, edited by Peter Kavanagh, The Peter Kavanagh Hand Press, New York 1969.
Books about Patrick Kavanagh
Agnew SSL, Una, The Mystical Imagination of Patrick Kavanagh, The Columba Press, Dublin 1998.
Kavanagh, Peter, Sacred Keeper, a Biography of Patrick Kavanagh, The Curragh, Ireland 1979.
Kavanagh, Peter, Patrick Kavanagh, A Life Chronicle, The Peter Kavanagh Hand Press, New York 2000.
Nemo, John, Patrick Kavanagh, Twayne, Boston, Mass. 1979.
O’Brien, Darcy, Patrick Kavanagh, Bucknell University Press, Lewisburg 1975.
O’Loughlin, Michael, After Kavanagh, Raven Arts Press, Dublin 1985.
Quinn, Antoinette, Patrick Kavanagh, Born-Again Romantic, Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, and Syracuse University Press 1991.
Warner, Alan, Clay is the Word: Patrick Kavanagh, 1904–1967, Dolmen Press, Dublin 1973.
Essays and Articles about Patrick Kavanagh
There is a comprehensive, annotated list of all materials relating to Patrick Kavanagh from 1935 to 1995 in Jonathan Allison, Patrick Kavanagh, A Reference Guide, G. K. Hall and Co., New York 1996.
Other Works Consulted
Michael Adams, Censorship: the Irish Experience, Scepter Books, Dublin 1968.
Conrad Arensberg, The Irish Countryman, Macmillan, London 1937.
Conrad Arensberg and Solon Kimball, Family and Community in Ireland, Harvard 1940.
John Arlott, (ed.), First Time in America, Duell, Sloan and Pearce, New York 1948.
Monica Blackett, The Mark of the Maker, A Portrait of Helen Waddell, London 1973
Henry Boylan, A Dictionary of Irish Biography, 3rd ed., Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 1998.
Patrick Kavanagh, a Biography Page 70
