Life
1917-1993 [pseud. ‘The Long-Winded Lady’]; b. 6 Jan. & ed.
[Dublin,] Ireland; dg. of Robert Brennan; appt. first Irish ambassador to America 1934; Maeve remained
in New York on return of family to Ireland; worked as copywriter on Harper’s
Bazaar before joining New Yorker staff to write on women’s
fashion at invitation of William Shawn, 1949; issued “The Holy Terror”,
her first story, 1950; contrib. to “Talk of the Town” column
under pseud., 1953-1968; issued In and Out of Never-Never Land
(1969), 22 stories; also Christmas Eve (1974), 13 stories, and
The Long-Winded Lady (1969), 47 short pieces from “Talk of
the Town”, 1953-1968; d. Nov. 1993, after a decade spent as inmate
of several mental hospitals; posthumous collection issued as The Springs
of Affection: Stories of Dublin (1997), being 21 stories of family
love and its failures in Dublin, introduced by William Maxwell, former-editor
of New Yorker and friend; followed by The Rose Garden (1999),
20 stories from The New Yorker; also The Visitor (2000),
a haunting narrative of a young girl whose parents are dead, and who returns
from Paris to live with her emotionally cold grandmother, recently discovered
in US university archive and published in Washington; there is a biography by Angela
Bourke (2004).
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Works
Christmas Eve (NY: Charles Scribner & Sons 1974); The
Long-Winded Lady: Notes from the New Yorker [1st Edn.] (New York:
William Morrow & Co. 1969), 237pp. [infra], and
Do. [another edn.] (NY: Houghton Mifflin/Mariner Boston 1997 [1998]);
In and Out of Never-Never Land: Twenty-two Stories (NY Charles
Scribner’s Sons 1969) 274pp. [ded. ‘For the Bolgers of Coolnaboy,
Oylegate: Anastasia James John Elizabeth Ellen Walter’; infra];
The Springs of Affection: Stories of Dublin [1st edn.] (NY: Houghton
Mifflin 1997; 1998), [vi]viii, 358pp.; Do. (London: Flamingo 1999),
346pp., port.; The Rose Garden (Washington: Counterpoint 2000),
312pp. [hb.; ded. ‘To W.S.’; infra];
Do. (London: HarperCollins 1999), and Do. (Washington: Counterpoint
2000, 2001) [pb.]; another edn. (Perseus Books Group, Washington, USA
2001), 320pp.; The Visitor (Washington, DC: Counterpoint Press
2000), 86pp. [incl. Ed. Note by Christopher Carduff, pp.[82]-86; Do.
[another edn.] (Washington: Perseus Books q.d.); Do. [another edn.],
foreword by Clare Boylan (Dublin New Island Books 2001), [i-vii], [3]-86pp.;
Ed. Note, ppp.[82-86] Do. (Atlantic Books UK 2000), hb. [in assoc.
with New Island Press].
Miscellaneous, With Frank O’Connor, John Updike, Roald Dahl, Dorothy Parker, Elizaberth Taylor, Nancy Hale et. al., Stories From the New Yorker 1950-1960 (NY: Simon & Schuster 1960), 780pp., hb. In and Out of Never-Never Land (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons 1969), Contents, BLUEBELL: The Door on West Tenth Street [3]; A Large Bee [14]; The Children Are Very Quiet When They Are Away In and Out of Never-Never Land [22]; The Children Are There, Trying Not to Laugh [41]; I See You, Bianca [47]. 48, CHERRYFIELD AVENUE: The Morning After the Big Fire [59]; The Old Man of the Sea [64]; The Barrel of Rumors [73]; The Day We Got Our Own Back [80]; The Clever One [85]; The Lie go The Devil in Us [95]. MRS. BAGOT: The Twelfth Wedding Anniversary [107]; The Carpet with the Big Pink Roses on It [123]; The Sofa [131]; The Shadow of Kindness [140]; The Eldest Child [155]; Stories of Africa [164]. TWO PEOPLE: A Young Girl Can Spoil Her Chances [193]; The Drowned Man [228]; A Free Choice [246]. (See Quotations, infra.)
The Long-winded Lady (NY: William Morrow 1969), Contents: Author’s Note [9]; They were both about forty [15]; A mysterious parade of men [19]; The solitude of their expression [2]; On the A train [26]; Balzac’s favorite food [29]; The dark elevator [32]; Broccoli [37]; A shoe story [40]; In the Grosvenor bar [44]; A Chinese fortune [47]; From the Earle Hotel [51];The farmhouse that moved downtown [57]; A lost lady [62]; The flower children [67]; Wild money [75]; Lovers in Washington Square [78]; I wish for a little street music [82]; Jobs [86]; Little birds in torture [93]; A young lady with a lap [95]; The morning after [99]; The two protesters [104]; Lost overtures [108]; The man who combed his hair [112]; The good Adano [117]; A busload of scolds [122]; Movie stars at large [126]; Faraway places near here [132]; The traveller [137]; Sixth Avenue shows its true self [143]; I look down from the windows of this old Broadway hotel [147]; Mr. Sam Bidner and his saxophone [154]; The ailanthus, our back-yard tree [160]; A little boy crying [167]; A young man with a menu [170]; Painful choice [178]; The new girls on West Forty-ninth Street [180]; The view Chez Paul [187]; The sorry joker [193]; Giving money in the street [198]; Bad Tiny [201]; An irritating stranger [206];; The cheating of Philippe [212]; West Eighth Street has changed and changed and changed again [217]; Ludvík Vaculík [223]; The name of Minnie Smith [230]; Howard’s apartment [233].
The Springs of Affection: Stories of Dublin (NY: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1997), Contents: Introduction by William Maxwell [1]; The Morning after the Big Fire [15]; The Old Man of the Sea [21]; The Barrel of Rumors [30]; The Day We Got Our Own Back [37]; The Lie [42]; The Devil in Us [47]; The Clever One [56]; A Young Girl Can Spoil Her Chances [63]; A Free Choice [99]; The Poor Men and Women [128] An Attack of Hunger [148]; Family Walls [171 The Drowned Man [193 The Twelfth Wedding Anniversary [215]; The Carpet with the Big Pink Roses on It [232]; The Shadow of Kindness [240]; The Sofa [255]; The Eldest Child [264]; Stories of Africa [273]; Christmas Eve [299]; The Springs of Affection [308]. Note [357]. Dustjacket [end, flap] shows photo of Brennan by Jill Krementz, 28 May 1984.
The Rose Garden (Washington: Counterpoint 2000), Contents: Preface [vii]; The View from the Kitchen [3]; The Anachronism [16]; The Gentleman in the Pink-and-White Striped Shirt [39]; The Joker [52]; The Stone Hot-Water Bottle [70]; The Divine Fireplace [94]; The Servants’ Dance [111]; The Bride [153]; The Holy Terror [159]; The Bohemians [172]; The Rose Garden [184]; The Beginning of a Long Story [204]; The Daughters [225]; A Snowy Night on West Forty-ninth Street [232]; I See You, Bianca [250]; The Door on West Tenth Street [263]; A Large Bee [275]; The Children Are Very Quiet When They Are Away [279]; In and Out of Never-Never Land [283]; The Children Are There, Trying Not to Laugh [302]; Note [309].
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- Angela Bourke, Maeve Brennan: Homesick at the “New Yorker” (London: Jonathan Cape 2004), 192pp.;
-
Catriona Crowe, ‘On a tightrope’, in The Dublin Review, 16 (Autumn 2004), pp.69-92 [review-article on Bourke, op. cit.].
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco): 2002