Padraic Colum


Colum, Padraic

 

Born Dec. 8, 1881, in Longford; died Jan. 11, 1972, in Enfield, Conn.; buried in Dublin. Irish poet and playwright.

Colum was part of the Celtic revival movement. He moved to the USA in 1914. Colum published his early verses in the collection Wild Earth (1907). He was the author of such plays as Broken Soil (1905) and Thomas Muskerry (1910). Colum was one of the first in Irish literature to portray the manners and mores of peasant life, which he embellished romantically. The action of his novels Castle Conquer (1923) and The Flying Swans (1957) develops in the Irish provinces in the late 19th century. Colum published a biography of J. Joyce in 1958 and one of A. Griffith in 1959.

WORKS

Collected Poems. New York, 1953.
Ten Poems. Dublin, 1957.
Legends of Hawaii. New Haven [1960].
The Poets’ Circuits: Collected Poems of Ireland. London, 1960.

REFERENCES

Boyd, E. Ireland’s Literary Renaissance. London, 1923.
Bowen, Z. P. Colum. London-Amsterdam [1970].