File 3 - From Charles Frewin

Identity area

Reference code

IE 2135 P19/2/6/3

Title

From Charles Frewin

Date(s)

  • 1985, 1992-1993 (Creation)

Level of description

File

Extent and medium

5 items

Context area

Name of creator

(1942-2016)

Biographical history

Michael Curtin was born in Limerick in 1942 and educated at the Sexton Street Christian Brothers’ school. In the 1960s, having spent five years working in a cement plant, he emigrated to London to try his hand as a writer. Finding no success, he returned to Limerick, where the broadcaster David Hanly encouraged him to continue writing. Several of Curtin’s short stories were subsequently published in the New Irish Writing column in the Irish Press and one of them took first prize at Listowel Writers’ Week in 1972. His first novel, The Self-Made Men, a partly autobiographical account of immigrant life in England, was published in 1980 by André Deutsch. Five further novels followed: The Replay (1981), The League Against Christmas (1989), The Plastic Tomato Cutter (1991), The Cove Shivering Club (1996), and Sing! (2001). Many of Curtin’s stories are set in his native city of Limerick and are characterised by a darkly comic tone, which became Curtin’s trademark. Michael Curtin died in his native city in April 2016.

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Letters from Charles Frewin at various addresses, expressing his enthusiasm for The Self-Made Men, The Replay, and The League Against Christmas. Later letters relate to Frewin’s subsequent bookselling career in Australia and his release of a paperback version of The League Against Christmas under Two Heads Publishing.

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Conditions governing access

This file contains personal information and is closed for 50 years. Review in 2043.

Conditions governing reproduction

Language of material

  • Béarla

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    Alternative identifier(s)

    Original number

    P19/19

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