This book contains George Nathan's letters to Sean O'Casey and his important dramatic criticism. The contents reveal the private, as well as the public, Nathan. Of special interest are his reactions to O'Casey's manuscripts that he could not make public.

The first volume of a collection of short stories by Sean Dietrich, a writer, humorist, and novelist, known for his commentary on life in the American South. His humor and short fiction appear in various publications throughout the Southeast.

Over the years American—especially New York—audiences have evolved a consistent set of expectations for the "Irish play." Traditionally the term implied a specific subject matter, invariably rural and Catholic, and embodied a reductive notion of Irish drama and society. This view continues to influence the types of Irish drama produced in the United States today. By examining seven different opening nights in New York theaters over the course of the last century, John Harrington considers the reception of Irish drama on the American stage and explores the complex interplay between drama and audience expectations. All of these productions provoked some form of public disagreement when they were first staged in New York, ranging from the confrontation between Shaw and the Society for the Suppression of Vice to the intellectual outcry provoked by billing Waiting for Godot as "the laugh sensation of two continents." The inaugural volume in the series Irish Literature, History, and Culture, The Irish Play on the New York Stage explores the New York premieres of The Shaughraun (1874), Mrs. Warren's Profession (1905), The Playboy of the Western World (1911), Exiles (1925), Within the Gates (1934), Waiting for Godot (1956), and Philadelphia, Here I Come! (1966).

"In Sean O'Casey: Writer at Work Christopher Murray takes a fresh look at the life of the last of the great writers of the Irish literary revival. Re-exploring the Dublin of O'Casey's childhood and the political situation in the Ireland during his early life, Murray sets them against O'Casey's autobiographies in an attempt to establish 'O'Casey's Ireland'. The second half of O'Casey's life was spent mostly outside Ireland and much of his income came from the United States. Murray examines his rise as an international figure and contrasts his later, more socialist, work with his more nationalist early work." "Christopher Murray establishes O'Casey as a self-made man of letters, an irrepressible fighter, a man who combined political courage and innocence, torn between a humanist vision of life rooted in his Dublin childhood and a utopian but blinkered loyalty to the Soviet Union." "Sean O'Casey: Writer at Work reconstructs a life committed to writing as a moral endeavour. While acknowledging that much of O'Casey's work was uneven, flawed, and overambitious, Murray argues that at its best it was infused with a passion and generosity that place it among the best bodies of drama in the twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This Critical Companion to the work of one of Ireland's most famous and controversial playwrights, Sean O'Casey, is the first major study of the playwright's work to consider his oeuvre and the archival material that has appeared during the last decade. Published ahead of the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland with which O'Casey's most famous plays are associated, it provides a clear and detailed study of the work in context and performance. James Moran shows that O'Casey not only remains the most performed playwright at Ireland's national theatre, but that the playwright was also one of the most controversial and divisive literary figures, whose work caused riots and who alienated many of his supporters. Since the start of the 'Troubles' in the North of Ireland, his work has been associated with Irish historical revisionism, and has become the subject of debate about Irish nationalism and revolutionary history. Moran's admirably clear study considers the writer's plays, autobiographical writings and essays, paying special attention to the Dublin trilogy, The Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock, and The Plough and the Stars. It considers the work produced in exile, during the war and the late plays. The Companion also features a number of interviews and essays by other leading scholars and practitioners, including Garry Hynes, Victor Merriman and Paul Murphy, which provide further critical perspectives on the work.

The selection in this one-volume anthology are representative of Nathan's entire oeuvre and include informal essays; criticism of famous plays of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; discussions of dramaturgy and aesthetics; profiles of noted producers, players, playwrights, and other writers; and letters that illuminate his writings.