The John O'Hara Society

O'Hara Shelf

2009-07-13T22:07:00.003-04:00

Washington Bookshop Highlights O'Hara

Washington
The Capitol Hill Bookshop, just behind the Capitol near Eastern Market, has a shelf, well, a pile devoted to O'Hara. Pretty much a first for the author in this day and age. The texts were nothing special. But well priced. Bookshop gets an all-round A.
--RDC

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Ringing O'Hara

2009-07-13T13:08:00.004-04:00

O'Haras in Pottsville Directory

Thanks to Rick Prelinger, of Prelinger Archives, San Francisco, for sending these images! Rick writes: 'After looking at the Soiciety's blog I thought I'd send scans of copy of the 1916 Pottsville telephone directory showing John O'Hara's father listed at 606 Mahantongo. It isn't of the greatest historical significance, but it's fun. Hope to get back to Pottsville one of these days and explore further. It's been awhile.'

Again, many thanks, Rick! I've put you on the e-mail list.

Richard.

Free Books

2009-06-29T18:19:00.003-04:00

Promotion Ends
Sorry, but this promotion, because of demand, has already terminated. No more free books available. (For cheapest O'Hara books, go to www.philabooks.webs.com). Hope to post your free books Monday. That's NOT a holiday, right? Anyway, look out for more cooperative promotions between the Society and @philabooksbooksellers. Happy Fourth of July!

Get a Free O'Hara Book

@philabooksbooksellers is offering subscribed members of The John O'Hara a free book authored by John O'Hara. These are second-hand books, and most are paperbacks. Condition varies. Offer applies as long as supplies last. Send a e-mail to philabooks@comcast.net, noting your membership and your mailing instructions. Offer expires 1 August 2009.

Contact us at John.OHara.Society@comcast.net, or by telephone at +(00)12672531086. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2009 Writers Clearinghouse.

Worldwide View

2009-06-27T13:40:00.005-04:00

International Interest

in Society, Study Says

During the past year, this website of the John O'Hara Society has received visitors from 39 countries, with the United States and the United Kingdom topping the list as the locales producing the most hits.

This is some of the information StatCounter, our statistical source for the website and its companion site, http://www.junto.blogspot.com/, shows.

In descending order, the following are some of the countries represented in the data:

Canada, Germany, Ireland, France, Spain, Japan, Thailand, Finland, Denmark, China, and Italy.

How did visitors come to the site? According to the data, the most common 'keywords,' directing interested parties were, in the following order:

'o'hara novels,' 'john o'hara society,' 'john o'hara,' 'john o'hara novels,' 'john o'hara club,' 'john o'hara blog,' 'dunhill gold plated lighter,' 'wylie o'hara,' 'john o'hara philadelphia,' 'writers clearinghouse press,' 'john o'hara fan club,' 'john o'hara pal joey,' @philabooks,' and the like.

Some of the more interesting hits included the following keywords:

'mere sex,' 'john o'hara still living,' 'my father came home at four o'clock one morning in the fall of 1918, and plumped down on a couch in the john' ohara,' 'date to love author john o'hara,' 'john o'hara jew,' 'erloff,' and the like. (Some others were pretty raunchy).

If you'd like more details about the continuing survey and how it's compiled, just let me know.

--- RDC

Writer's Query

2009-06-25T17:36:00.003-04:00

Did O'Hara Get it Wrong?

In the Companion Guide project I am working on, I think I noticed two mistakes in Appointment in Samarra, and I was wondering if you had the time whether you could check things out in your first edition.

Early on Al Grecco picks up Julian driving home from the Country Club after the drink throwing incident. The books states that Al Grecco is driving a V-61 Cadillac Coach. I went online, and there is no V-61 Cadillac Coach. There is, however, a V-16 Cadillac Coach.

In the scene where Julian wakes up the next day with a hangover, there's a reference to his Kappa Beta Phi Key. There is no Kappa Beta Phi. Instead there is of course Phi Beta Kappa.

I have an email in to Penn State. They promised me an answer. I want to look at the original manuscript to see what was written down. Was this the error of the author or the publisher.

All the more reason for the pilgrimmage to Penn State. Any help you can give me would be appreciated.

--Robert Saliba

The Big Question?

2009-06-22T17:25:00.002-04:00

Left to Right, James Checket, Robert Saliba, Robert Knott, Richard Carreno in front of old O'Hara house, 'Linebrook.'

Photo: Writers Clearinghouse

Why Did O'Hara Move to Princeton?

That was the big question over lunch at the Nassau Inn.

Lots of reasons:

Near Philly and Pottsville.

It wasn't New Haven

It embodied Wall Street money

Ivy League School

Firzgerald?

WASP population

Thanks to Robert Saliba, we also get the official view from the late and pal Matt Bruccoli:

'...Belle wanted to get John out of New York where there were too many distractions and to many bars. He concurred, admitting that it was time for him to make "21" a restaurant and not a career. When Wylie showed a mild asthma condition, the O'Haras began town hunting. Saratoga Springs, where Frank Sullivan lived, was considered, but was rejected because the winters were harsh and it was a long way from the reference sources O'Hara needed. No serious consideration was given to Potttsville. He wanted a college town for the library facilities and for the people; and Princeton won out over New Haven...He liked Princeton's location between Philadelphia and New York and had the theory that the social structure of a college town is set by the living standard of the full professors, This is not the case in Princeton. As John O'Hara certainly knew, Princeton is full of big money, and its social structure is more influenced by Wall Street than by Prospect Street." -- Bruccoli, Matthew J., The O'Hara Concern, p 199.

20 June 2009

2009-06-22T16:57:00.002-04:00

Society Visits O'Hara's Princeton

After lunch at the Nassau Inn, a favourite O'Hara dining spot, Society pals toured the 'Master's Princeton.' Included were the Princeton Chapel, Trinity Church, the Nassau Club, Linebrook, and O'Hara's gravesite in the Princeton Cemetery. After almost four hours, we wound up having tea at the cafe in the new town Library building across from the cemetery. Among our group were Robert and Jenny Saliba, James and Sally Checket, Robert Knott, Carol Gramer, Joan Kane, and Richard Carreno.

Next trip? O'Hara's study at Penn State University. Stay tuned for details!

Press Released

2009-06-12T20:01:00.005-04:00

From: Richard Carreno
Date: 12 June 2009
Re: PRESS ADVISORY (O'Hara Society Field Trip to Princeton, NJ)
Contact: 267.253.1086

When: 20 June 2009, 12:30 PM
Who: John O'Hara Society
Where: Nassau Inn

Society to Princeton Sites Related to Author

The John O'Hara Society, a worldwide group that honours and celebrates the life and work of John O'Hara, arguably America's greatest 20th century short-story writer, will meet Saturday, 20 June, in Princeton, NJ, for a field trip to sites related to the author's life and death.

O'Hara lived in Princeton for many years until his death in 1970.

The group, with its head office in Philadelphia, will meet at 12:30 PM for lunch at the Nassau Inn, Palmer Square, and leave from there for site visits to:

* Princeton Cemetery (O'Hara's gravesite)
* 18 College Road West (his first house in Princeton)
* Princeton University Chapel (site of O'Hara's funeral service)
* Princeton Trinity Church (site of funeral of O'Hara's second wife, Belle)
* Linebrook (O'Hara's house)
* Nassau Club (his club in town)
* Princeton Y.M.C.A. (attended)

The lunch is reserved for CURRENT Society members only. The tour is open to all. Just show up.

For more details about the outing and FREE Society membership, go OHaraSociety.blogspot.com. Or contact the group's membership secretary, Richard Carreno, on 2672531086.

END

Contact us at John.OHara.Society@comcast.net, or by telephone at +(00)12672531086. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2009 Writers Clearinghouse.

John O'Hara @ Facebook

2009-06-05T08:05:00.003-04:00

facebook

Dear Pals:

The following person recently invited you to be their friend on Facebook:

Writers Clearinghouse

Other people you may know on Facebook:

	Avery Rome The Philadelphia Inquirer		Christopher Lydon
	Justin Carreno Washington, DC		Lise Funderburg Philadelphia, PA
	Paula Goff Philadelphia, PA		Connie Langland Philadelphia, PA

Facebook is a great place to keep in touch with friends, post photos and videos, and create events. But first you need to join! Sign up today to create a profile and connect with the people you know.

Thanks,
The Facebook Team

Facebook is free and anyone can join.

To join Facebook, please follow the link below:

http://www.facebook.com/r.php?re=15ca966f4069d4f1974e1130b5bf3778&mid=930748G48d264d5G2eaa57G46

Judy Blume on Reading O'Hara

2009-06-05T01:06:00.002-04:00


JuAdy Blume on Reading John O'Hara Judy Blume remembers reading John O'Hara when she was young - a book the library wouldn't let her check out and that her mother forbid her to read. At the NCAC event with Toni Morrison and Fran Lebowitz. John O'Hara and censorship: Author Judy Blume discussing her reading O'Hara as a youth -- and what happened!

Provisional Itinerary

2009-06-04T19:58:00.007-04:00

June 20 Itinerary

Here's a provisional itinerary for our June 20 field trip to Princeton, New Jersey. It's in no particular order:

Princeton Cementary (John O'Hara gravesite).
18 College Road West (Rental before he moved to Linebrook).
Princeton Hospital (Where Belle died).
Princeton Trinity Church (Belle funeral).
Linebook, intersection of Province Line and Pretty Book roads.
Nassau Club.
Princeton Y.M.C.A.
Princeton University Chapel (O'Hara funeral).

If anyone has any other ideas, please note them here.

Also, if anyone who plans to attend who has a camcorder, please bring that too for a film of the event. For the website. YouTube?
--RDC
Contact us at John.OHara.Society@comcast.net, or by telephone at +(00)12672531086. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2009 Writers Clearinghouse.

Princeton Field Trip

2009-06-01T21:03:00.002-04:00

Set for June 20!
Our visit to John O'Hara sites has been scheduled for 12:30 PM Saturday, June 20, at the Nassau Inn, off Nassau Street, Princeton, New Jersey. (Check Google and MapQuest for details). We visit the house (hopefully), gravesite, and church, etc. (Refer to O'Hara Compendium.) Please suggest and advise. This is an OPEN event for one and all, paid or non-paid. Please RSVP to John.OHara.Society@comcast 15 June, please. 
From: Pal Carol Randolph Gramer, New York: Yankee Doodle Tap Room in the basement of the Nassau Inn is a great place for beer and burgers: pub chow is inexpensive but good, and the ambiance is historical and picturesque. And it is located right smack in the middle of Palmer Square.
From Richard: Thanks for the tip! See you there. Richard
 

Membership Update

2009-06-01T11:30:00.002-04:00

[The following is a copy of a universal blast via our Facebook.com membership page].

Welcome New Members!

In the past month, thanks to Facebook's Group page, we've recruited about a dozen new members. Welcome, pals!

I've tried to message each of you individually, but, to my dismay, this is AGAINST Facebook regs. So this universal blast is necessary. For these new pals, then, I recommend that they go to our website, www.OHaraSociety.blogspot.com, for Society news/updates and for membership details.

Basic membership is FREE. Premium memberships, which includes FREE DVDs, audios, publications, etc., is $25 per annum, payable via PayPal, etc. As always, don't hesitate to contact me directly at John.OHara.Society@comcast.net.

Just a bit of membership news from Blighty: Spoke to James MacDonald at length when I was in London last week. Recruiting efforts there are under way. As you may know, some of our most enthusiastic pals are Brits.

Also, no I haven't forgotten about our field trip to Princeton, New Jersey. I just need a bit of a breather before I can sort that one out.

Best wishes to all, Richard Carreno

Contact us at John.OHara.Society@comcast.net, or by telephone at +(00)1:267:253:1086. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2009 Writers Clearinghouse

Appointment at 75

2009-05-29T01:11:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Christine Goldbeck:
It's the 75th Anniversary for Celebrated Pottsville Native's Controversial Novel: For 75 years, Pottsville has also been known as "Gibbsville."
By Stephen J. Pytak

Staff Writer

spytak@republicanherald.com

Published: Monday, May 11, 2009 8:20 AM EDT

For 75 years, Pottsville has also been known as "Gibbsville."

Fans of novelist John O'Hara believe it will continue to carry that designation for generations to come.
"O'Hara's works are very much relevant today because they deal with the human condition, with relationships between men and women and individuals and society," said Shenandoah native Christine M. Goldbeck, author of "A Tribute to O'Hara and Other Stories," published in 2000.
"He's relevant because the same themes he talks about in the 1920s and '30s and '40s still occur. And I believe he will be read for centuries to come," said Mark T. Major, local historian and executive director of the Schuylkill County Visitors Bureau.
This is a watermark [sic] year for the celebrated Pottsville author, the 75th anniversary of the publication of his first novel, "Appointment in Samarra," in which his fictitious version of Pottsville was introduced. Local O'Hara fans can celebrate by visiting the life-size bronze statue of O'Hara on South Centre Street, checking out one of his classic books from a local library, or taking the John O'Hara walking tour of Pottsville. Pamphlets for the tour are available at the visitors bureau, 200 E. Arch St., Pottsville.
Meanwhile, the Schuylkill County Council for the Arts, Pottsville, is planning a John O'Hara weekend dinner theatre in early November, according to Sandra Coyle, the council's executive director.
O'Hara remains popular at the Pottsville Free Public Library, according to Denise Miller, circulation manager.
"He's no Danielle Steel, James Patterson or John Grisham. But who's to say they'll remain popular in 75 years?" Miller said Thursday.
In his career, O'Hara wrote 16 novels and 402 stories, according to the Web site of The John O'Hara Society.

There are 209 O'Hara books and multiple copies of 44 O'Hara titles in the Pottsville library's collection. Since 1998, the most popular O'Hara title with patrons has been "Appointment in Samarra," Miller said.
"Since 1998, when we started keeping computer records, it's been checked out 67 times," Miller said.
According to the Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 324, John O'Hara, published by Thomson-Gale in 2006,
"Appointment in Samarra" was published Aug. 16, 1934. The book, which chronicled the lives of the elite and affluent of Gibbsville, is also No. 22 on The Modern Library's 100 Best Novels.
Ione Geier, a Pottsville writer, has a hardcover first edition in her collection. It's her favorite of his novels.
"I identified with the places that he wrote about and when I was older the people that he wrote about," said Geier, who said she conducted the first two John O'Hara walking tours in Pottsville in 1978 and 1980.
It centers on the self-destruction of one of Gibbsville's more popular gentlemen, Julian English, and his struggle with relationships, community and self. Told from the viewpoints of several different characters,"Appointment in Samarra" is also about manners and depicts the way in which one must abide by certain rules in order to gain acceptance to maintain social standing, according to Goldbeck and  eNotes.com.
Gaining acceptance was something O'Hara had struggled with himself.
"John was aware of the social differences about which he would write as an adult. This had to do with the fact that the O'Hara family was Irish Catholic. Irish immigrants were not seen in the best of light. After all, it had not been very long since the so-called Molly Maguires were hanged for crimes against mine supervisors and operators," Goldbeck said on the Web site for the John O'Hara Society.
By writing about a place he called "Gibbsville," O'Hara was able to criticize Pottsville's social strata, said Vincent D. Balitas, Pottsville, a retired American literature professor. Balitas also started "The O'Hara Journal," a literary magazine published locally between 1978 and 1982.
"In Gibbsville, he depicted a small town and revealed the warts. He attacked the hypocrisy, the Babbitry, the arrogance of small-town nobodies. When it came out, 'Appointment in Samarra,' O'Hara was considered a traitor to Pottsville. For a small town to be told their bleeding citizens are essentially nobodies, it created problems. It created problems for him," Balitas said.
While O'Hara renamed streets, churches and office buildings in Pottsville in his novels, some of his early critics believed he was also writing about specific people.
When asked about that, Balitas said O'Hara would say "these are composites of people."
Major called "Appointment in Samarra," "a decent read," but said he wasn't sure if it was a completely accurate portrayal of the upper class in Pottsville at the time: "Can't comment on it. I didn't live in the 1920s that he lived in. But he probably did the best job that he could. You always use what you're familiar with when you write a story like that, your own experiences, your own memories."
Schuylkill County Commissioner Mantura M. Gallagher, an avid O'Hara fan, called it her favorite novel.
"I've read and re-read it countless times and each time I find something new," she said. "It's timeless. He was known for his exact depiction of the region's dialect. He captured conversations like no other author whom I've read.
Furthermore, his exact descriptions, although sometimes tedious, left the reader with an "exact picture of what he was describing," Gallagher said. "It's still readable, which is good. It's a very tight, very compact piece of modern realism. I can go back and reread it without getting bored. That's the only one of his books I can do that with," Balitas said.
Miller said other popular O'Hara titles with Pottsville library patrons and how many times they were checked out since 1998 include: "Gibbsville, PA.: The Classic Stories," 54; "Ten North Frederick," 52; "The Farmers Hotel," 19; "Rage to Live," 19; and "From the Terrace," 13.
People new to O'Hara's writing style might not find it so easy to read, said Robin James, assistant reference librarian at the Pottsville library.
"It takes a level of patience and you have to be in the right mood. It's period. It's like Shakespeare. After a week, it's light reading. I took a shot at the 'Gibbsville' book when I moved here. Then I tried some short stories. He is a total craftsman when it comes to the dialog, and the dynamics of his characters' interpersonal relationships. Got to admire the guy. He did a good job," James said.
"Once you get into his books, his stories are hard to put down. I think it's the way he tells the story. It has a lot to do with his character development. It has a lot to do with character-to-character relationships in his stories," Major said.
Major said his favorite is O'Hara's autobiographical story "The Doctor's Son."
Local theater groups have performed dramatizations of O'Hara short stories. One of the more recent was The Strawberry Playhouse production of O'Hara's "The Champagne Pool" at Schuylkill County Council for the Arts in Pottsville in October 2008 during Pottsville's Roaring '20s Week celebration.
Gallagher said the Schuylkill County Bicentennial Committee and the Schuylkill County Actors Guild are planning to host a few in 2011.
"These will be from his 'Gibbsville' book. It takes time because we have to find four appropriate short stories and convert them to dramatic form," Gallagher said.
Copyright © 2009 - The Republican & Herald
 

Remembering O'Hara

2009-05-18T14:02:00.003-04:00

On 'We Are Rich'

'[It] reminds of the pleasures of first reading John O'Hara and Fitzgerald.' -- Frank Pierson, screen writer for Dog Day Afternoon and Cool Hand Luke and artistic director of the American Film Institute quoted in an ad in this month's New York Book Review of Books for We Are Rich by Dori Carter.

Contact us at John.OHara.Society@comcast.net, or by telephone at +(00)1:267:253:1086. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2009 Writers Clearinghouse

ANOTHER FREE DVD!

2009-05-11T20:55:00.001-04:00

 
Get it Now!
Philadelphia11 May 2009
Look out in the coming two weeks for ANOTHER FREE DVD from the Society. Thanks to Pal Joey award-winner James Knott members* will be receiving a 1987 PBS production of 'Natica Jackson.'
My photo essay of O'Hara in London will also appear in a week or three.
For other alerts, turn to the John O'Hara Society at Facebook.com.
Richard
* FREE DVDs will be sent ONLY to paid-up annual members. If you want to receive ALL the premiums distributed to paid-up members in 2009, it's NOT too late. Just PayPal the Society for $25 via Writers.Clearinghouse@comcast.net, or send a personal cheque for that amount to me. Inquire re details. Membership runs from 31 January to 30 January annually.

VoxBox: +(00)1:267:253:1086//www.OHaraSociety.blogspot.com

BUtterfield 8

2009-04-08T01:12:00.002-04:00

BUtterfield 8 DVD

Here's a glimpse into the DVD of BUtterfield 8 already distributed to members. The complete film, with Elizabeth Taylor, is being aired at You Tube in 11 parts.

JohnBullEsq has shared a video with you on YouTube:

BUtterfield 8 (1960) pt.3/11

part three

Action Jackson

2009-04-08T01:05:00.003-04:00

Natica Jackson DVD Video

Here's a glimpse into the Natica Jackson DVD that will be distributed to members.

JohnBullEsq has shared a video with you on YouTube:

MICHELLE PFEIFFER as Natica Jackson

y never released this film in Italy, in my language her name would be... embarrassing! :-)
And check out the guy... this is how Ray and Lorene Hallet first met ;-)

Robert Knott

2009-04-06T15:21:00.003-04:00

Another Pal Joey Awardee

If you recently -- as a paid-up member, that is -- received your free copy of the DVD BUtterfield 8, you can thank Robert Knott, a member from New Jersey. Robert has kind enough to copy our library of video tapes to DVD so that we can distribute our materials far and wide. (Don't believe in hoarding). A work-related trip means that Robert won't be able to copy our PBS tape of Natica Jackson immediately -- but he assures us that he'll get to it when returns to Jersey City. For all this and more, Robert is our THIRD Pal Joey honorand! Congratulations and thank you, Robert.

Research Help

2009-04-05T15:53:00.003-04:00

O'Hara in London, Etc.
I will be in London in late May, and I hope to hit as many 'O'Hara in London' sites as time permits. I know the usual suspects, and I'll be photographing these for posting here. Similar to what I did in LA and hope to do elsewhere, ie. upcoming group field visit to Princeton. If you have any ideas/suggestions, please let me know.

If you're an international member and may be in the neighborhood during the time of visit, also alert me to that. Any potential members to contact, as well.

DVDs of 'Natica Jackson' and CDs of a O'Hara-related walking tour of Pottsville, and other audios, are now in the works being copied. Copies of these will be delivered FREE to paid-up members!

More to come.

Richard

Contact us at John.OHara.Society@comcast.net, or by telephone at +(00)1:267:253:1086. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2009 Writers Clearinghouse

'Natation' Jackson

2009-02-28T16:37:00.002-05:00

Parsing O'Hara

By Robert Saliba

I sent a quote of one sentence from a John O'Hara short story, "How Old, How Young," to a childhood friend of mine, who is a retired professor of literature.

Here is the sentence, which describes a young woman at poolside at the Lantenengo Country Club circa 1922:

"She picked up her bathing cap and pulled it on, tucking in wisps of her blonde hair, cocking her head as she did and unconsciously being extremely feminine and attractive."

Here is my friend's analysis:

Now the O'Hara sentence is excellent. One can read it over and over again and not get tired of it, for its structure is so perfect and the parts fit together so nicely.

"She," a feminine pronoun singular, controls two short compound verb/direct object units, very symmetrical with "picked up" and "pulled on" as matching active verbs and "bathing cap" as the object in both units, as represented by "it" in the second unit. This is followed by a compound sequence of three present participle phrases -- "tucking in," "cocking," and "being," each of which has a direct object (first two, again a series of two active verbs) or a predicate complement (final one).

All three participle phrases are adverbial, modifying "pulled on" but their sequence is varied by the propositional phrase "of her blonde hair" modifying "wisps," "as she did" modifying "cocking", and "unconsciously" modifying "being" which is in turn complemented by "feminine and attractive" -- another compound form modified by "extremely."

The whole sentence exhibits an extraordinarily symmetrical, but varied form. The sentence also moves gradually from simple concrete particular and active references to expansive, more abstract references, the transitions being marked by personal references back to the subject "she" (three "her's", "as she did") so that extremely feminine and attractive" falls right into place as expanding the particularized feminine imagery into a conceptual termination invoking femininity itself, though still tied closely to the particular "she" with which the sentence begins.

Everything in the sentence harmonizes, is held in place by adjacent forms, shows a varied progression, and terminates effectively. Nothing disrupts or disharmonizes with this combination.

Mailer On O'Hara

2009-02-24T23:52:00.003-05:00

Appointment Ranks Among His Top 10 Favs

Illuminates Mailer's freshman year

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22431

To Helen Morris,
The Reader's Catalogue
627 Commercial Street,
Provincetown, MA

January 16, 1988

Dear Helen Morris,

Appended is my list. With the exception of Huckleberry Finn, which I reread recently, the other nine books were devoured in my freshman year at Harvard, and gave me the desire, which has never gone completely away, to be a writer, an American writer. They're all selections from the mainstream of American novels, not a surprise on the list, which separates me, I suspect, from my colleagues. But it's an honest list, even if it doesn't bring a deserving writer out of obscurity. Freshman year at Harvard is luminous because of these books.

Yours sincerely,
Norman Mailer

Ten Favorite American Novels
U.S.A. John Dos Passos
Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
Studs Lonigan James T. Farrell
Look Homeward, Angel Thomas Wolfe
The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway
Appointment in Samarra John O'Hara
The Postman Always Rings Twice James M. Cain
Moby-Dick Herman Melville

(Thanks to member Richard Rabicoff for submitting the above, gleaned from the current issue of The New York Review of Books).

On CD

2009-02-24T23:51:00.005-05:00

Frank MacShane, Another Loss

Frank MacShane was one of a dozen O'Hara experts recorded in 1998 by WVIA-FM in its year-long retrospective on the Master.

Published: November 17, 1999, The New York Times

Frank MacShane, a literary biographer who specialized in applying the highest standards of criticism to popular novelists like Raymond Chandler and John O'Hara who had been ignored by other academic critics, died on Monday at a nursing home in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He was 72.

Dr. MacShane, a former professor of writing at Columbia University, moved to Massachusetts seven years ago after the onset of Alzheimer's disease, said his son, Nicholas.

As recently as the 1960's and 70's, despite occasional efforts by Edmund Wilson, W. H. Auden and others, academic literary critics largely dismissed Chandler as a mere mystery writer, O'Hara as an undisciplined hack and Ford Madox Ford as a purveyor of glossy junk, none of them worth the time of serious students of literature.

Dr. MacShane's biography ''The Life of Raymond Chandler'' (1976), in which he identified Chandler as one of the originators of the hard-boiled detective story and compared him to Joyce, Tolstoy, Chaucer, Twain and Conrad, helped change all that.

Reviewing the book on the front page of The New York Times Book Review, Leonard Michaels said that Chandler ''emerges from the book as a very powerful and psychologically interesting figure.''

Newsweek called the book ''an exemplary biography,'' and Richard R. Lingeman, in a review in The New York Times, said it was ''valuable and fascinating.'' John Simon, on the other hand, wrote in Book Week that the biography lacked ''critical acuity.''

The Chandler biography was followed by studies of O'Hara and James Jones. Previously, Dr. MacShane had written a biography of Ford Madox Ford.

Discussing his career in 1981, Dr. MacShane told an interviewer for Columbia Library Columns that he had concentrated on the study of writers who had ''substantial followings and many enthusiastic champions'' but who were not ''automatically accepted into the highest literary rank.''

Dr. MacShane was also a dedicated teacher who focused his attention on nonfiction and translation. He taught at the Hotchkiss School, Vassar College, the University of California at Berkeley and Williams College before founding the graduate writing division in the School of the Arts at Columbia in 1967.

From 1972 to 1973, Dr. MacShane served as dean of the School of the Arts at Columbia, but then he returned to teaching in the writing division.

He was born on October 19, 1927, in Pittsburgh, the only son of a newspaperman who became publisher of The New York Journal-American, the Hearst flagship.

He graduated from Harvard in 1949, and received a master's degree from Yale in 1951 and a doctorate from Oxford in 1955.

In addition to his son, Nicholas, of Wellesley, Massachusetts, Dr. MacShane is survived by a sister, Jean Fraser-Harris of Bristol, England, and two grandchildren.

The above article was written by William H. Honan.

Two Honoured

2009-02-23T14:31:00.008-05:00

Barry Lane, Right
Hank Holman, Far right

Name

First

'Pal Joey'

Kudos

For service to the Society, we are honoured to name two recipients of the first-ever 'Pal Joey Awards,' Barry Lane of Toronto and Hank Holman of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Barry donated the audio tapes of the 1998 WVIA-FM 'O'Hara Interviews' and Hank transferred them to CDs.

This generosity was crucial in maintaining our mission in disseminating as much information about John O'Hara to as many as possible. Other donations and in-kind services are solicited on an on-going basis.

Sweet Caroline...

2009-02-23T13:10:00.004-05:00

Remembered

In the following, member Robert Saliba recalls one of the Master's most memorable female characters, Caroline English, wife of ill-fated Julian English:

In From the Terrace, sometime around 1920 Alfred Eaton briefly stops at the Lantenengo Country Club and has a chance meeting on the porch with Julian. "Come on back to the locker-room and I'll give you a shot of whiskey. My name is English. I go to Lafayette."

Several years later, in 1927, just after Alfred meets Natalie Benziger, her father, Ralth Benziger, gives Alfred a guest card to the same Lantenengo Country Club. The golf pro pairs him with Julian, and while the golf pro and Alfred are waiting for Julian to arrive, the golf pro says of Julian, "He plays a nice game when he's on his game, but he can go haywire worse than anybody I ever saw."

Natalie and Caroline are best friends. After Julian's death, Caroline tells Natalie: "What am I now? What shall I ever be? I'm a girl who had good and just cause to walk out on her husband, and now for the rest of my life I can sit here with my good and just cause...He was nice, and God help me he was nice to me."

It was the only time Natalie saw her weep. "I loved him, I loved him."

Caroline never remarries, never has any other relationship that we know about.

In Appointment, when Julian and Caroline have their altercation outside Caroline's mother's house (the Walker mansion on South Main Street), Julian begs her to go home with him and talk things over, but she refuses, and instead she stays with her mother. Later that evening Julian, at home alone and thoroughly drunk, kills himself.