Selected Literary Journalism, 1852 1860

In the decade that followed his arrival in the United States in 1851, the transplanted Irishman Fitz-James O'Brien (1828-1862) was an active literary journalist, producing a steady stream of contributions to newspapers, weeklies, and monthly magazines, in New York and elsewhere. As poet, short story writer, essayist, dramatist, and critic he won a reputation as one of the ablest of the young writers in the city of New York. This book reintroduces O'Brien to modern readers, bringing together thirty-four of his writings, all but two of which are reprinted here for the first time. Fitz-James O'Brien promotes renewed recognition of its subject as a man strikingly attuned to the fashions, enthusiasms, and concerns that manifested themselves in his adoptive country during the years that preceded the Civil War. It makes the case that, not only for his vivid contemporaneity but also for his originality, range, and technical skill, the young author's hope for lasting memory as a man of letters was well founded. A checklist of the author's published writings between 1852 and 1864 provides a useful basis for further inquiry. Wayne R. Kime was Professor of English at Fairmont State College, West Virginia, before his retirement.