J.P. Donleavy

J.P. Donleavy is a prominent author and playwright of the Irish-American descent. He is well known to write novels based on the literature & fiction genre and is particularly famous for writing the novel, The Ginger Man. Another famous book written by him is called A Fairytale of New York. This book helped to provide the titled for the popular song ‘Fairytale of New York’. Author Donleavy was born as James Patrick Donleavy on April 23, 1926, in Brooklyn, New York, United States. His parents were immigrants from Ireland. Donleavy completed his education by studying in a number of schools throughout the US. Later, he joined the US Navy and served for a brief period at the time of the Second World War. Author Donleavy shifted to Ireland after retiring from the Navy following the end of the war. In 1946, he enrolled himself at the Trinity College in Dublin and started pursuing graduation. However, he could not obtain his degree as he left the college in 1949, a little before the completion of the course. Seeing no other course path, author Donleavy decided to pursue writing and was published for the first time in the literary periodical of Dublin, called Envoy. Donleavy was able to achieve critical acclaim with his debut book called Ginger Man. This book went on to be included in the list of the 100 best books, prepared by the Modern Library. Due to the depiction and description of obscenity in the book, it was banned in US and Ireland. The main lead of the book, Sebastian Dangerfield, is partly based on author Donleavy’s companion from the Trinity College, Gainor Crist. He was a Navy veteran from America and studied in the college on the GI Bill.