John McGahern, 1934-2006
by Nancy Poulin, Customer Service Bibliographer
Irish writer, John McGahern died of cancer March 30, 2006 at the age of 71. He was born in Dublin but lived most of his life in County Leitrim. John was the eldest of six children and was only 9 years old when his mother died of cancer. John had promised his mother he would become a priest. He attended the Presentations Brother's College at Carrick-on-Shannon, where his love for literature began and all thoughts of the priesthood died. He went on to attend St. Patrick's Teacher Training College and became a primary school teacher.
John's work was once described as "hopeless and depressing". Despite this he was know as "Ireland's greatest living novelist". His plots were set in his native Irish homeland. During his writing career he only published six novels. He was best known for his fifth novel Amongst Women which was short listed for the Booker Prize. This novel was used for the setting of a highly praised BBC miniseries in 1998.
Below is a list of titles by John McGahern, available from YBP and Baker & Taylor. For your convenience, this list is also available in a MS Excel spreadsheet. click here.
