Thomas Flanagan (writer)

For other people named Thomas Flanagan, see Thomas Flanagan (disambiguation).
Thomas Flanagan
Born
Thomas Bonner Flanagan

November 5, 1923
Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S.
DiedMarch 21, 2002 (aged 78)
Berkeley, California, U.S.
EducationB.A. Amherst College
M.A. & PhD. Columbia University.
Occupation(s)professor
novelist
SpouseJane Parker Flanagan
Children2, including Caitlin Flanagan
FamilyAndrew Klavan (son-in-law)

Thomas Bonner Flanagan (November 5, 1923 – March 21, 2002)[1] was an American university professor at the University of California at Berkeley and a novelist.

Biography

Flanagan was born in 1923 in Greenwich, Connecticut,[2] to a homemaker mother and a dentist father. All of his grandparents had come to the United States from County Fermanagh, Ireland. He served in the United States Army during World War II. He graduated from Amherst College in 1945. He received his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Columbia University. From 1960 to 1978 he was Professor of English Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, specializing in Irish literature. He was a tenured Full Professor in the English Department at the Stony Brook University until his retirement.

Flanagan was also a successful novelist. His first novel, The Year of the French, won the National Book Critics Award for fiction in 1979 and was adapted into a TV series, which was broadcast in Ireland in 1982.[3]

Personal life

In 1949, he married Jane Parker, a nurse; they had two children, writer Caitlin Flanagan and Ellen Flanagan Klavan.[1] His son-in-law is writer Andrew Klavan.[4][5] He and his wife spent much of their time in Ireland. They lived in East Setauket, Long Island.

He died on March 21, 2002, at the age of 78 in Berkeley.[1]

Works

Historical novels

Non-fiction work

  • The Irish Novelists 1800–1850 (1958)

Legacy

The Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College holds his papers.

References

  1. ^ a b c Genzlinger, Neil (March 29, 2002). "Thomas Flanagan, 78, Author Of Trilogy About Ireland". The New York Times.
  2. ^ "Irish Writers Online: Thomas Flanagan". www.irishwriters-online.com. Archived from the original on August 21, 2008.
  3. ^ Guy Beiner, "The Decline and Rebirth of 'Folk Memory': Remembering 'The Year of the French' in the Late Twentieth Century", Éire – Ireland, 38, no. 3-4 (2003), 7–32.
  4. ^ Robinson, Peter (8 September 2008). "The World According to Andrew Klavan". Hoover. Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson. Hoover Institute. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  5. ^ Robinson, Peter (August 2, 2008). "That Despicable Winston Churchill". National Review. ....reminded me of an exchange I had with my father-in-law, Thomas Flanagan, brilliant guy, old school academic lefty. Flanagan, the author of a marvelous trilogy of novels about Ireland, the first of which is "The Year of the French," taught at Berkeley

Sources

External links