By the Lake (McGahern) - Author Bio

Author Bio
• Birth—November 12, 1934
• Where—Dublin, Ireland
• Death—March 30, 2006
• Where—Dublin, Ireland
• Education—St. Patrick's College of Education, Drumcondra
•  Awards—member of the Irish Arts honorary organization
    Aosdána; Irish-American Foundation Award; Chevalier des
    Arts et des Lettres; and the Prix Etranger Ecureuil


John McGahern was the author of five highly acclaimed novels and four collections of short stories. His novel Amongst Women won the GPA Book Award and the Irish Times Award, was short-listed for the Booker Prize, and was made into a four-part BBC television series.

He had been a visiting professor at Colgate University and at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and was the recipient of the Society of Authors’ Award, the American-Irish Award, and the Prix Étrangère Ecureuil, among other awards and honors. His work appeared in anthologies and was translated into many languages. He died in 2006. (From the publisher.)

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Born in Dublin, McGahern spent his childhood in the parish of Aughawillan near Ballinamore, County Leitrim until his mother, who was the local primary school teacher, died. The family then moved to Cootehall, County Roscommon to live with their father who was a Garda sergeant in the village. John travelled form Cootehall to Carrick-on-Shannon every day where he was educated by the Presentation Brothers.

After secondary school, he was offered a place in teacher-training at St. Patrick's College of Education (Drumcondra). Upon graduation he began his career as a primary schoolteacher at Scoil Eoin Baiste (Belgrove) primary school in Clontarf where, for a period, he taught the eminent academic Declan Kiberd before turning to writing full-time.

McGahern's novel The Dark was banned in Ireland for its alleged pornographic content and implied sexual abuse by the protagonist's father. In the controversy over this he was dismissed from his teaching post. He subsequently moved to England where he worked in a variety of jobs before returning to Ireland to live and work on a small farm near Fenagh in County Leitrim, located halfway between Ballinamore and Mohill.

He died from cancer in the Mater Hospital in Dublin on 30 March 2006, aged 71. He is buried in St Patrick's Church Aughawillan alongside his mother.

McGahern's six novels follow his own life experiences to a certain extent.

• His first published novel, The Barracks covers life in a rural Garda barracks especially from the point of view of the sergeant's wife, Elizabeth Reegan.
• His second book, The Dark covers the teenage experiences of a young scholarship student in rural Ireland.

• The next novel, The Leavetaking introduces us to Patrick Moran, a young schoolteacher in Dublin.

• In 1979, The Pornographer was published. The protagonist who writes pornography for a living is now living in Dublin.

• His fifth and best known novel is Amongst Women, the story of Michael Moran, an IRA veteran of the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War, who now dominates his family in the unforgiving farmlands of Co. Leitrim, near Mohill.

• His final novel That They May Face the Rising Sun (By the Lake in the US) is an elegiac portrait of a year in the life of a rural lakeside community. McGahern himself lived on a lakeshore and drew on his own experiences whilst writing the book. Lyrically written, it explores the meaning in prosaic lives.

McGahern is also considered a master of the Irish tradition of the short story.

McGahern was a member of the Irish Arts honorary organization Aosdána and won many other awards (including the Irish-American Foundation Award, the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, and the Prix Etranger Ecureuil).

He taught at universities in Ireland, England, the United States and Canada. In 1991, he received an honorary doctorate of Trinity College, Dublin. His work has influenced a younger generation of writers, such as Colm Toibin. Some of his works have been translated into Japanese and other languages.

McGahern is generally thought to have exhausted the tradition of rural Irish modernism, although many younger writers continue to copy his detached and knowing style. (From Wikipedia.)