File 5 - From assorted friends and acquaintances

Identity area

Reference code

IE 2135 P19/2/6/5

Title

From assorted friends and acquaintances

Date(s)

  • 1981, 1988 and 1992 (Creation)

Level of description

File

Extent and medium

4 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 assorted friends and acquaintances, including Danny Blanchflower, Hubert Butler, Dick Amaral and ‘Una [?], Jessica and Michael’.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

This file contains personal information and is closed for 50 years. Review in 2042.

Conditions governing reproduction

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

    Language and script notes

    Physical characteristics and technical requirements

    Finding aids

    Allied materials area

    Existence and location of originals

    Existence and location of copies

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    Notes area

    Alternative identifier(s)

    Original number

    P19/21

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    Description control area

    Description identifier

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        Sources

        Accession area