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John O'Hara was born on January
31, 1905 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
He was considered in his day
a gifted yet controversial writer
of both novels and short stories.
He spent time in Pennsylvania
for the early part of his childhood
until his parents decided to
send him off to Niagara Preparatory
School in Niagara, New York.
He graduated in 1924. When O'Hara's
father died, his family went
into poverty. For that reason,
O'Hara couldn't go to college.
He went to work as a reporter
for various newspapers in Pennsylvania
until 1926.
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For the rest of the
twenties he traveled
around the country until
he settled in New York
and got a job with the
Hollywood columnist
Heywood Broun. In 1928,
O'Hara's published his
first short story in
The New Yorker Magazine.
He would eventually
become a regular contributor
to the magazine. In
1934, O'Hara published
his first novel Appointment
in Samarra. This
novel was a major success
along with his second
novel Butterfield
8. These novels
established O'Hara as
a big time novelist.
In 1940, one of O'Hara's
novel Pal Joey
was turned into a musical
with the help of Richard
Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. |
The original run wasn't successful,
but another run in 1952 was
a huge success.His another novel
was Ourselves to Know. During
World War II, O'Hara became
a correspondent in the Pacific.
After the war, O'Hara concentrated
on becoming a screenwriter.
He was involved in the writing
of On Our Merry Way ,
and even novels that brought
him success in the past. The
1950's and 1960's brought more
success to the novelist. He
wrote the novels A Rage
To Live, From a Terrace,
and Ten North Fredrick ,
(which won O'Hara the National
Book Award in 1955). O'Hara
settled in Princeton, New Jersey
where he died on April 11, 1970.
During
the post war period, there were
too many sexually free novels
which became highly successful.
Among such writers, the great
master in the post war period
was John O’Hara. He stands
between the novelists of urban
environment and the novelist
of manners.He sets most of his
novels and short stories in
a medium-sized Pennsylvania
town he named Gibbsville. Sex
and social distinction are central
to O’Hara’s vision.
John O’Hara usually shows
sexually barren hero and loveless
lust. So, sex is the center
of his works. He treats sexuality
as the final unveiled truth.
In O’Hara’s work,
we find all the qualities of
realist, naturalist and novelists
of manners. Like a realist,
he adds intricate detail of
common class social environment
of Pennsylvania, like a naturalist
he writes about sexual violence
and like a novelist of manners,
he shows the manner of people
in society.
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