Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art
Encyclopedia
December 1949- July 1951. Dublin, Ireland. Editor & Founder: John Ryan
During its brief existence, Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art, published the work of a broad range of writers, Irish and others. The first to publish J. P. Donleavy
, Brendan Behan
's first short stories and his first poem, and an extract from Samuel Beckett
's "Watt," Envoy was begun by John Ryan, a Dublin artist, who was editor and prime mover. Among the distinguished associate editors were Valentin Iremonger
, Irish diplomat and poet who served as poetry editor, J. K. Hillman, Michael Huron, and Owen Quinn. Envoy also included Patrick Kavanagh's
famous 'Diary'.
In December 1949 Envoy was inaugurated in response to Irish trade and censorship restrictions which had forced many writers to seek publication outside their homeland. Though the Envoy Publishing Company's goal of publishing books died with the magazine in July, 1951, the short-lived enterprise succeeded, with the lone publication of Valentin Iremonger's prize-winning book of poetry Reservations, and with its lively magazine, in breaching some of the barriers of Irish publication, as well as providing outstanding prose, poetry, criticism, and reviews of the contemporary Irish art scene during its twenty-month existence.
The Envoy offices were on 39 Grafton Street but most of the journal’s business was conducted in the nearby pub, McDaid’s. As Antoinette Quinn in her biography of Patrick Kavanagh says: " Around one o'clock the Envoy office would empty intself into John McDaid's, a small, narrow, high-ceilinged pub at 3 Harry Street, where much of the journal's business was conducted. The clientele was a mixture of working class and bohemian."
, Anton Chekhov
(in translation), Padraic Colum
, Anthony Cronin
, Aidan Higgins
, Pearse Hutchinson
, Maria Jolas
(in translation), Patrick Kavanagh
(who wrote the monthly "Diary)," Mary Lavin
, Ewart Milne
, Denis Devlin
, Ethel Mannin
, Lionel Miskin, Brian O'Nolan, John Jordan
, Edward Sheehy, Francis Stuart
, Arland Ussher
, Thomas Woods, and many others.
, film actress. Ryan was a painter, broadcaster, publisher, critic, editor, and publican.
John Ryan studied at the NCA, but was largely a self-taught painter. He was a regular exhibitor at the RHA from 1946 onwards, and also showed at the annual Oireachtas and the IELA. He designed theatre sets for the Abbey, Gate, Olympia and Gaiety Theatres as well as for the stage in London. He also acted in and produced several plays. From 1969 to 1974 was editor of The Dublin Magazine. Ryan was also a broadcaster, being a long-time contributor to Sunday Miscellany on Radio Éireann. In 1975 he published a book of his reminiscences of literary Dublin entitled Remembering How We Stood, featuring stories of his friends including Behan, Kavanagh, J. P. Donleavy (q.v.) and Anthony Cronin, and the many Dublin characters who patronised his famous pub, "The Bailey" in Duke Street. He was also a patron to many artists.
First Bloomsday Celebration. Bloomsday
(a term Joyce himself did not employ) was invented in 1954, the 50th anniversary, when John Ryan and the novelist Flann O'Brien organised what was to be a daylong pilgrimage along the Ulysses route. They were joined by Patrick Kavanagh, Anthony Cronin, Tom Joyce (he was Joyce’s cousin and the only family representative that Ryan could find) and AJ Leventhal. A Bloomsday record of 1954, informally filmed by John Ryan, follows this pilgrimage.
John Ryan (Dublin artist)
John Ryan Dublin, Ireland was an Artist, broadcaster, publisher, critic, editor, patron and publican.John Ryan was many things but primarily a key figure in Bohemian Dublin for many years. He knew nearly every artist of note that lived in, or passed through, Dublin from the 1940s onwards...
During its brief existence, Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art, published the work of a broad range of writers, Irish and others. The first to publish J. P. Donleavy
J. P. Donleavy
James Patrick Donleavy is an Irish American author, born to Irish immigrants. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II after which he moved to Ireland. In 1946 he began studies at Trinity College, Dublin, but left before taking a degree...
, Brendan Behan
Brendan Behan
Brendan Francis Behan was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright who wrote in both Irish and English. He was also an Irish republican and a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army.-Early life:...
's first short stories and his first poem, and an extract from Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
's "Watt," Envoy was begun by John Ryan, a Dublin artist, who was editor and prime mover. Among the distinguished associate editors were Valentin Iremonger
Valentin Iremonger
Valentin Iremonger was an Irish diplomat and poet.He was born in Dublin and joined the diplomatic service. He served as Irish Ambassador to Sweden, Norway, Finland, India and Luxembourg....
, Irish diplomat and poet who served as poetry editor, J. K. Hillman, Michael Huron, and Owen Quinn. Envoy also included Patrick Kavanagh's
Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh was an Irish poet and novelist. Regarded as one of the foremost poets of the 20th century, his best known works include the novel Tarry Flynn and the poems Raglan Road and The Great Hunger...
famous 'Diary'.
In December 1949 Envoy was inaugurated in response to Irish trade and censorship restrictions which had forced many writers to seek publication outside their homeland. Though the Envoy Publishing Company's goal of publishing books died with the magazine in July, 1951, the short-lived enterprise succeeded, with the lone publication of Valentin Iremonger's prize-winning book of poetry Reservations, and with its lively magazine, in breaching some of the barriers of Irish publication, as well as providing outstanding prose, poetry, criticism, and reviews of the contemporary Irish art scene during its twenty-month existence.
The Envoy offices were on 39 Grafton Street but most of the journal’s business was conducted in the nearby pub, McDaid’s. As Antoinette Quinn in her biography of Patrick Kavanagh says: " Around one o'clock the Envoy office would empty intself into John McDaid's, a small, narrow, high-ceilinged pub at 3 Harry Street, where much of the journal's business was conducted. The clientele was a mixture of working class and bohemian."
Contributors
Among Envoy contributors were Samuel Beckett, Brendan Behan, Patrick SwiftPatrick Swift
Patrick Swift was an artist born in Dublin, Ireland. Patrick Swift was a painter and key cultural figure in Dublin and London before moving to the Algarve in southern Portugal, where he is buried in the town of Porches...
, Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
(in translation), Padraic Colum
Padraic Colum
Padraic Colum was an Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer, playwright, children's author and collector of folklore. He was one of the leading figures of the Celtic Revival.-Early life:...
, Anthony Cronin
Anthony Cronin
Anthony Cronin is an Irish poet. He received the Marten Toonder Award for his contribution to Irish literature....
, Aidan Higgins
Aidan Higgins
-Life:His upbringing in a landed Catholic family in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland, provided material for his first experimental novel, Langrishe, Go Down...
, Pearse Hutchinson
Pearse Hutchinson
Pearse Hutchinson is an Irish poet, broadcaster and translator.-Childhood and education:Pearse Hutchinson was born in Glasgow. His father, Harry Hutchinson, a Scottish printer whose own father had left Dublin to find work in Scotland, was Sinn Féin treasurer in Glasgow and was interned in Frongoch...
, Maria Jolas
Maria Jolas
Maria Jolas , born Maria McDonald, was one of the founding members of transition in Paris with her husband Eugene Jolas....
(in translation), Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh was an Irish poet and novelist. Regarded as one of the foremost poets of the 20th century, his best known works include the novel Tarry Flynn and the poems Raglan Road and The Great Hunger...
(who wrote the monthly "Diary)," Mary Lavin
Mary Lavin
Mary Josephine Lavin was a noted Irish short story writer and novelist. She is regarded as a pioneering female author in the traditionally male-dominated world of Irish letters. Her subject matter often dealt explicitly with feminist issues and concerns at a time when the primacy of the Roman...
, Ewart Milne
Ewart Milne
Ewart Milne was an Irish poet who described himself on various book jackets as "a sailor before the mast, ambulance driver and courier during the Spanish Civil War, a land worker and estate manager in England during and after World War 2" and also "an enthusiast for lost causes - national,...
, Denis Devlin
Denis Devlin
Denis Devlin was, along with Samuel Beckett and Brian Coffey, one of the generation of Irish modernist poets to emerge at the end of the 1920s. He was also a career diplomat.-Early life and studies:...
, Ethel Mannin
Ethel Mannin
Ethel Edith Mannin was a popular British novelist and travel writer. She was born in London into a family with an Irish background....
, Lionel Miskin, Brian O'Nolan, John Jordan
John Jordan (poet)
John Jordan was an Irish poet born in Dublin on 8 April 1930. He was educated at Synge Street CBS, University College, Dublin and Pembroke College, Oxford. In his teens he acted on the stage of the Gate Theatre, Dublin, before winning a Scholarship in English and French to Oxford University from...
, Edward Sheehy, Francis Stuart
Francis Stuart
Henry Francis Montgomery Stuart was an Irish writer. His novels have been described as having a thrusting modernist iconoclasm. Awarded the highest artistic accolade in Ireland before his death in 2000, his unwillingness to take a clear moral stance with regard to his years spent in Nazi...
, Arland Ussher
Arland Ussher
Percival "Percy" Arland Ussher was an Anglo-Irish academic, essayist and translator.Born in Battersea, London, he studied at Cambridge University for some time...
, Thomas Woods, and many others.
Founder & Editor John Ryan
John Ryan(1925–1992).Son of Senator Seamus Ryan, prop. Of The Monument Creameries; brother to Kathleen RyanKathleen Ryan
Kathleen Ryan was an Irish actress.She was born in Dublin, Ireland of Tipperary parentage and was a spirited and heart warming Irish actress who appeared in British and Hollywood movies between 1947 and 1957.-Family:...
, film actress. Ryan was a painter, broadcaster, publisher, critic, editor, and publican.
John Ryan studied at the NCA, but was largely a self-taught painter. He was a regular exhibitor at the RHA from 1946 onwards, and also showed at the annual Oireachtas and the IELA. He designed theatre sets for the Abbey, Gate, Olympia and Gaiety Theatres as well as for the stage in London. He also acted in and produced several plays. From 1969 to 1974 was editor of The Dublin Magazine. Ryan was also a broadcaster, being a long-time contributor to Sunday Miscellany on Radio Éireann. In 1975 he published a book of his reminiscences of literary Dublin entitled Remembering How We Stood, featuring stories of his friends including Behan, Kavanagh, J. P. Donleavy (q.v.) and Anthony Cronin, and the many Dublin characters who patronised his famous pub, "The Bailey" in Duke Street. He was also a patron to many artists.
First Bloomsday Celebration. Bloomsday
Bloomsday
Bloomsday is a commemoration observed annually on 16 June in Dublin and elsewhere to celebrate the life of Irish writer James Joyce and relive the events in his novel Ulysses, all of which took place on the same day in Dublin in 1904...
(a term Joyce himself did not employ) was invented in 1954, the 50th anniversary, when John Ryan and the novelist Flann O'Brien organised what was to be a daylong pilgrimage along the Ulysses route. They were joined by Patrick Kavanagh, Anthony Cronin, Tom Joyce (he was Joyce’s cousin and the only family representative that Ryan could find) and AJ Leventhal. A Bloomsday record of 1954, informally filmed by John Ryan, follows this pilgrimage.
External links
- John Ryan http://www.pgil-eirdata.org/html/pgil_datasets/authors/r/Ryan,J(b1925)/life.htm
- Irish Literature Library http://irishliterature.library.emory.edu/content.php?id=MSS043_1001419
- J.P. Donleavy http://www.jpdonleavycompendium.org/BillDunn-ArtistProfile.html
- Southern Illinois University http://ireland.siuc.edu/envoy.html
- Isola di Rifiuti, with extracts http://isola-di-rifiuti.blogspot.com/2010/02/patrick-swift.html
- First Bloomsday http://members.ozemail.com.au/~maelduin/firstbloom.html
- Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art Records, 1949-1951 at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Special Collections Research Center