Life
1888-1957 [Arthur Joyce Lunel]; b. 7 Dec., Derry city, the family home
being Castle Cary, Inishowen, Co. Donegal; summers at Quigley Point, filled with stories of land-league outrage; his grandfather ruined by land
act of 1881, and his father a civil engineer in England; ed. Tunbridge Wells, and Clifton College; studied art in Edinburgh
and Paris, on the strength of a legacy of £300, 1907-1909; issued Verse (1908); grad. law, Oxon., 1912,
his tutor being A. E. Pritchard; served in Balkan Red Cross [Montenegro],
1912-13; entered Nigerian political service [1913] and served in the Nigerian
Regt. in Cameroons during World War I; wounded in action, he returned
to England in 1916 and married Gertrude Ogilvie; app. Asst. District Officer
at Bougu (‘Daji’ in the novels), 1917; returned in 1920 and
settled in Oxford; published novels, Aissa Saved (1932); An
American Visitor (1933); The African Witch (1936); his
father died in 1937; issued Castle Corner (1938) and Mister
Johnson (1939; reps. to Penguin reiss. 1993); Power in Men (1939);
Charley is My Darling (1940); A House of Children (1941);
Herself Surprised (1941); To Be a Pilgrim (1942); The
Horse’s Mouth (1944), which Cary called ‘a very heavy piece
of metaphysical writing’; served as London air-warden, 1945; The
Moonlight (1946); A Fearful Joy (1949); Prisoner of Grace
(1952); Except the Lord (1953); Not Honour More (1955);
Carfax edn. of his works pub. by Michael Joseph in the 1950s; diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis [motor neurone
disease], 1955; prepared Clark lectures, Art and Reality (1958),
actually delivered by his nephew Robert Ogilvie; d. 29 March 1957; posthumous works, The Captive and the
Free (1959), Spring Song and Other Stories (1960), and Alan Bishop, ed., Selected Essays (1976); a plaque was placed in his honour at
Bank House, Shipquay St., Derry, Oct. 1995. NCBE
DIW KUN2 OCEL OCIL
[ top ]
Works
Novels, Aissa Saved (London: Ernest Benn 1932; Michael Joseph
1952); An American Visitor (London: Ernest Benn 1933; Michael Joseph
1949, 1952); The African Witch (London: Victor Gollancz 1936);
Castle Corner (London: Victor Gollancz 1938; Michael Joseph 1952);
Mister Johnson (London: Victor Gollancz 1939; Michael Joseph 1952;
NY: Harper 1951) [ded. To Musa]; Do. rep. (Harmondsworth: Penguin
1964; 10 imps. to 1976; 1993); Power in Men [on systems of government]
[Liberal Book Club Publications] (London: Nicolson & Watson 1939),
v, 281pp.; Charley is My Darling (London: Michael Joseph 1940;
NY: Harper 1960); A House of Children (London: Michael Joseph 1941);
Herself Surprised (London: Michael Joseph 1941; Penguin 1955]);
To be a Pilgrim (London: Michael Joseph 1942); The Horse’s
Mouth (London: Michael Joseph 1944), Do., rep. (Harmondsworth:
Penguin 1948; 15 imps. to 1978), 375pp. [ded. Heneage Ogilvie]; The
Moonlight (London: Michael Joseph 1946; NY: Harper 1947), rep. (Michael
Joseph 1952); A Fearful Joy (Michael Joseph 1949; NY: Harper 1950),
rep. (Michael Joseph 1952); Prisoner of Grace (London: Michael
Joseph; NY: Harper 1952); Except the Lord (London: Michael Joseph;
NY: Harper 1953); Not Honour More (London: Michael Joseph; NY:
Harper 1955); The Captive and the Free (1959). Short stories, Spring
Song and other Stories (1960); Joyce Cary Triptych [Herself Surprised;
To Be a Pilgrim; The Horse’s Mouth] [Penguin Modern
Classics] (Harmondsworth: Penguin 1985), [pp.7-175, 175-499, 503-768].
Reprints, num. titles in Penguin; also the ‘Gulley
Jimson’ Trilogy in Picador.
Prose, Power in Men [on systems of government] [Liberal Book Club Publications] (London: Nicolson & Watson 1939), v, 281pp.; Britain and West Africa (London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1946), with plates; The Case for African Freedom [Searchlight Books No.11] (London: Secker & Warburg 1941); rev. ed., enlarged (Secker & Warburg 1944), 157pp.; The Drunken Sailor, poem ills. by the author (London: Michael Joseph 1947); Process of Real Freedom (London: Michael Joseph 1943), 15pp.; Art and Reality [Clark Lectures] (CUP 1958); Selected Essays (1976), ed. Alan Bishop. Note that the Carfax Edition was published by Michael Joseph in 1952. Also Memoir of Bobotes, ill. by the Author, foreword Walter Allen (London: Michael Joseph 1964), 169pp.; A G Bishop, ed., Selected Essays (London: Michael Joseph 1976), 255pp.
[ top ]
Criticism
Walter [Ernest] Allen, Joyce Cary [Writers and their Work, No.
41] (London: Longmans, Green 1953; rev. eds. 1954, 1956 [1963]).
Andrew Wright, Joyce Cary: A Preface to His Novels (1958).
Walter Allen, Joyce Cary [Writers and Their Works Ser. No. 41] rev. edn. (London: Longmans 1963).
Charles Hoffmann, Joyce Cary: The Comedy of Freedom (Pittsburgh UP 1964).
Malcolm Foster, Joyce Cary: A Biography (Boston: Houghton Mifflin 1968).
Dennis Hall, Joyce Cary: A Reappraisal (London: Macmillan 1983), 162pp.
Barbara Michael J[oseph] C[hukwudalu] Echeruo, Joyce Cary and the Novel of Africa (London: Longmans 1973), 8, 156pp.
Barbara Fisher, Joyce Cary: The Writer and his Theme (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1980, rep. 1992).
Walter Allen, As I Walked Down New Grub Street (1981).
Cornelia Cook, Joyce Cary: Liberal Principles [Critical Studies Ser.] (London: Vision 1981, 1990).
Fisher, ed., Joyce Cary Remembered in Letters Interviews [with family members, at al.] (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1988), 290pp.
Barbara Fisher, ‘The Influence of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky on Joyce Cary with Particular Reference to Cary’s Irish Novels in Wolfgang Zach & Heinz Kosok eds., Literary Interrelations: Ireland, England and the World, Vol. II: Comparison and Impact (Tübingen: Guntar Narr Verlag, 1987), pp.299-310.
Siga Asanga, ‘Joyce Cary’s Representation of African Reality: A Study of Cary’s Novels on Africa’, in Wolfgang Zach and Heinz Kosok eds., Literary Interrelations, Vol. III: National Images and Stereotypes (1987), pp.169-80.
Edwin Christian, Joyce Cary’s Creative Imagination ([q. pub.] 1988).
Alan Bishop, Gentleman Rider, a biography of Joyce Cary (London: Michael Joseph 1988), 408pp.; Fisher, ed., Joyce Cary Remembered, In the Letters and Interviews by his Family and Others (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1988).
Jacques Emprin, ‘Castle Corner, A Big House Novel?’, in Jacqueline Genet, ed., The Big House in Ireland (Dingle: Brandon; NY: Barnes & Noble 1991), pp.131-142.
Robert Welch, ‘Joyce Cary: “Wondering at Difference”’, in Changing States: Transformations in Modern Irish Writing (London: Routledge 1993), pp.119-137.
Walter Allen, ‘Reasons for Reading Joyce Cary’, in Honest Ulsterman, 2 No. 24.
Vander, ed., Joyce Cary and Lawrence Durrell: A Reference Guide (GK Hall 1985, 1994); [qyr init.?] O’Connor, Joyce Cary [Essays on Modern Writers] (NY: Columbia UP 1966, 1993)
Robert Greacen, Rooted in Ulster: Nine Northern Writers (Belfast: Lagan Press 2001), 130pp. There is a study of Cary by H. Adams (1986).
Merja Makinen & Kevin Harris, Joyce Cary: A Descriptive Bibliography (London: Mansell 1990, 1994), 254pp.; [contains ‘Writings by Joyce Cary’ grouped by genre; ‘Writings about Joyce Cary’ grouped by themes, and by titles; indexes].
Mister Johnson (Orion Publ. Group 1995)
[ top ]
Books in Print (1994): Aissa Saved (London: Ernest Benn 1932; M. Joseph [Carfax ed.] 1952; Bath: Lythway Press 1974; Michael Joseph 1992) ; An American Visitor (London: Ernest Benn 1933; M. Joseph [Carfax ed.] 1952); The African Witch (London: Gollancz 1936); Castle Corner (London: Gollancz 1938; Belfast: Blackstaff 1988) ; Mister Johnson (London: Gollancz 1939; M. Joseph [[Carfax ed.] 1952, 1992) ; Charley is My Darling (London: Michael Joseph 1940; Cardinal 1990); A House of Children (London: Michael Joseph 1941; Belfast:: Blackstaff 1989) [0 85640 423 3]; Herself Surprised (London: Michael Joseph 1941; Penguin 1955; Calder & Boyars 1968); To be a Pilgrim (London: Michael Joseph 1942; Penguin 1957); The Horse’s Mouth (London: Michael Joseph 1944; Penguin 1948; Penguin 1953, 1992) [0 14 018481 3]; The Moonlight (London: Michael Joseph 1946; Carfax ed. 1952); A Fearful Joy (London: Michael Joseph 1949; M. Joseph [Carfax ed. 1952]; Penguin 1956; Cardinal 1990) [0 74740 689 8]; Prisoner of Grace (London: Michael Joseph 1952; Carfax ed. 1954); Except the Lord (London: Michael Joseph 1953; Longmans 1986] ; Not Honour More (London: Michael Joseph 1955); The Captive and the Free (London: Michael Joseph 1959); Spring Song and Other Stories (London: Michael Joseph 1960; Carfax ed. 1974) ; The Horse’s Mouth, with self-portrait and ills. by the author, and ‘The Old Strife at Plants’, a discarded chapter of The Horse’s Mouth ed. by Andrew Wright, with preface, notes, and bibliography (Rainbird in assoc. with M. Joseph 1957); Do., Folio Society Ed., with drawing by John Bratby (1969) 340pp. [o 85067 008 X]; Selected Essays, ed. A G Bishop (M Joseph 1976).
Bank House, Shipquay St., Derry, where a plaque was placed in his honour, was at one time in the late 1990s a Bewley's Restaurant/Coffee Shop premisses.
[ top ]
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)