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Padraic ColumPadraic Colum (December 8, 1881 - January 11, 1972) was an Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer and collector of folklore. He was one of the leading figures of the Celtic Revival. Early life Colum was born Padraic Columb in Longford workhouse, where is father worked. He was the first of eight children. When the father lost his job in 1889, he moved to the United States to participate in the Colorado gold rush. Padraic and his mother and siblings remained in Ireland. When the father returned in 1892, the family moved to Glasthule, outside Dublin where his father was employed as Assistant Manager at Sandycove railway station. When Colum's mother died in 1897, the family were temporarly split up. Padraic and one brother remained in Dublin while the father and remaining children moved back to Longford. Colum finished school the following year and took up a clerical position with the Irish Railway Clearing House. He stayed in this job until 1903. During this period, Colum started to write and met a number of the leading Irish writers of the time, including W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, James Stephens and George William Russell. He also joined the Gaelic League and was a member of the first board of the Abbey Theatre. It was at this time that he dropped the 'b' from his surname. He became a regular user of the National Library of Ireland. Here he met James Joyce and the two became lifelong friends. Early poetry and plays Colum's earliest published poems appeared in The United Irishman, a paper edited by Arthur Griffith. His first book. Wild Earth (1907) collected many of these poems and was dedicated to . His first play, Broken Sail (1903) was performed by the Irish Literary Theatre. He had several plays stages at the Abbey. One of these, The Land (1905), was one of that theatre's first great public successes. In 1911, he co-founded the short-lived literary journal The Irish Review, which published work by Yeats, George Moore, Oliver St John Gogarty, and many other leading Revival figures. The following year he married Mary Gunning, who was working at Patrick Pearse's experimental school, St Enda's. At first the couple lived in the Dublin suburb of Donnybrook, where they held a regular Tuesday literary salon. They then moved to Howth, a small fishing village just to the north of the capital. In 1914, they emigrated to the United States. Later life and work In America, Colum took up children's writing and published a number of collections of stories for children, beginning with The King of lreland's Son (1916). Three of his books for children were awarded retrospective citations for the Newbery Honor. In 1922 he was commissioned to write versions of Hawaiian folklore for young people. This resulted in the publication of three volumes of his versions of tales from the island. He also started writing novels. These include Castle Conquer (1923) and The Flying Swans (1937). The Colums spent the years from 1930 to 1933 in France, where Padraic renewed his friendship with Joyce. After their time in France, the couple moved to New York, where they both did some teaching at Columbia University. Colum was a prolific author and published a total of 61 books, not counting his plays. After Mary died in 1957, he divided his time between the States and Ireland. He died in Enfield, Connecticut and is buried in St Fintan's Cemetary near Howth. References Print - Igoe, Vivien. A Literary Guide to Dublin. ISBN 0-4136912-0-9
Online External links Colum, Padraic Colum, Padraic Colum, Padraic Colum, Padraic Colum, Padraic
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