Brendan Behan: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism

128 Pages·1980·9.88 MB·English

by  E. H. Mikhail (auth.)

BRENDAN BEHAN:
AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CRITICISM
By the same author
The Social and Cultural Setting of the I 89os
John Galsworthy the Dramatist
Comedy and Tragedy
Sean O'Casey: A Bibliography of Criticism
A Bibliography of Modern Irish Drama
Dissertations on Anglo-Irish Drama
The Sting and the Twinkle: Conversations with Sean O'Casey
J. M. Synge: A Bibliography of Criticism
Contemporary British Drama I950-I976
J. M. Synge: Interviews and Recollections
W. B. Yeats: Interviews and Recollections
English Drama I 90o-I 950
Lady Gregory: Interviews and Recollections
Oscar Wilde: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism
A Research Guide to Modern Irish Dramatists
Oscar Wilde: Interviews and Recollections
The Art of Brendan Behan
BRENDAN BEHAN
An Annotated Bibliography
of Criticism
Eo H o Mikhail
© E H Mikhail I g8o
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1980
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First published Ig/Jo in the U.K. and all other parts of the world
excluding the U.S.A. by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
First published in the U.S.A. Ig/Jo by
HARPER & ROW PUBLISHERS INC.
BARNES & NOBLE IMPORT DIVISION
British Library Cataloguing iD Publicatioa Data
Mikhail, Edward Halim
Brendan Behan
1. Behan, Brendan-Criticism and interpretation
- Bibliography
016.822'9'14· Z8o86./
ISBN 978-1-349-05117-5 ISBN 978-1-349-05115-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-05115-1
BARNES & NOBLE ISBN o o6 4948269
LCN 79-12337
To Beatrice Behan
for her immense help
Contents
Acknowledgements IX
Priface XI
I. BIBLIOGRAPHIES 1
II. PUBLISHED BOOKS BY BEHAN AND THEIR REVIEWS 7
The Quare Fellow 7
Borstal Boy 7
The Hostage 9
Brendan Behan's Island 9
Hold rour Hour and Have Another I I
The Scarperer I 2
Brendan Behan's .New rork I3
Confessions of an Irish Rebel I 5
Moving Out and A Garden Party I 7
Richard's Cork Leg I 7
III. CRITICISM ON BRENDAN BEHAN I8
A) Books I8
B) Periodical Articles 30
C) Reviews of Play Productions, including Drama
tisations and Films Based on Behan's Life or His
Works 79
The Quare Fellow 79
The Big House 87
The .New House [Moving Out and The Garden
Parry] 88
The Hostage 88
Borstal Boy 97
Richard's Cork Leg g8
Brendan IOO
A Jar with Brendan Behan 1 oo
VII
viii CONTENTS
Shay Duffin as Brendan Behan 100
D) Dissertations on Brendan Behan 101
E) Discography 103
F) Manuscripts 104
G) Letters 105
Index 106
Acknowledgements
I wish to express my gratitude to Mrs. Beatrice Behan, without whose
generous help and continuous cooperation this book would never have
taken its present shape. She has graciously placed her husband's
material at my disposal and has patiently answered all my queries.
Brendan Behan scholars will undoubtedly share my appreciation of her
assistance.
At various stages I received useful information, comments, support,
or assistance from Mr Alan Simpson; Mr Gabriel Fallon; Mr Rory
Furlong; Professor Robert Hogan; Dr Olof Lagerlof; Professor Heinz
Kosok; Ms Marianne Levander; Dr. Colbert Kearney; Miss Deirdre
McQuillan and Miss Mary O'Neill of the National Theatre Society,
Dublin; Miss Kate Mackay and Mr Nicholas Hern of Eyre Methuen
Ltd., London; Mr Seamus de Burca; Mr Desmond MacNamara; the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; Mr Catha! Goulding; Miss Alice
E. Einhorn of Doubleday Publishers; Mr Louis Burke; Mrs Teresa
Monaghan; Mr Brian McCoy; Radio Telefis Eireann; Mr John
O'Riordan; Mrs Sharon Murphy; Mr Michael Cormican; Mr Manus
Canning; Mr Brian Price; Miss Wendy Johnson; and Mr John
Bennett.
I am grateful to Miss Bea Ramtej for her usual skill in preparing
the final typescript; to Mr Tim Farmiloe of the Macmillan Press Ltd.
lor his encouragement and interest; to the late Allan Aslett and his staff
of the same firm for their help in seeing the book through the press.
Thanks are due to the University of Lethbridge for granting me a
sabbatical leave, during which this work was completed.
It is also a pleasant duty to record my appreciation to the staff of
the University of Lethbridge Library; the British Library, London; the
Newspaper Library, Colindale; the National Library of Ireland,
Dublin; Trinity College Library, Dublin; the Bibliotheque Nationale,
Paris; the National Library, Ottawa; and the New York Public
Library.
E.H.M.
IX
Preface
Almost all the critical evaluations of Brendan Behan's achievement
vitiate themselves in accepting biased popular judgements of the
writer's personality. In recent years, however, Behan's stature has
undergone novel if not radical alteration. Several full-length books
have been written on his life or his writings, in addition to the large
amount of material in periodicals. Dissertations have been, and are
being, written on him, and his plays are consistently being revived. In
years to come, therefore, people reading his works will want to know
more about Behan the man than the evil tradition which his name will
evoke. Hence the need for the present work.
There is no full-length critical bibliography of Brendan Behan. Nor
are existing bibliographical aids comprehensive in their coverage of
Behan criticism. Various periodical indexes, for example, never list the
large number of interviews Behan gave during his life. The Essay and
General Index includes some essays on Behan in books, but neither
recollections of him in books of reminiscences, nor references to him in
books on dramatic literature.
Another difficulty I have encountered is the vast amount of material
that has been written on Behan. As a result of Behan's versatility as a
writer in both English and Gaelic, his wide travels in both Europe and
North America, his excessive drinking, and his popular personality,
there has probably been more literature dealing with him than with
any other contemporary writer who produced the same amount of
work. Apart from the additional burden which this large number of
items has put on me in deciding what to include and what to exclude,
the entries I eventually decided to include-totalling some 2,ooo -left
me no alternative but to resort to the added task of annotations as the
only way in which a reader can distinguish, for example, between the
several items entitled 'Brendan Behan'. The annotations, however, are
not evaluative, but descriptive and indicative of the content of the
material they describe. A small number of items, though, have not
been annotated; in these cases I felt that the title of the entry is
indicative enough of its content. Most of the annotations fall generally
XI