THE JOHN O'HARA SOCIETY

Be There Or Be Square

2012-01-12T13:53:00.000-05:00

JANUARY 28!

Contact us at JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com. We're always looking for contributors and comment. Join the conversation! © 2011 Writers Clearinghouse Est. 1976 @ Fabyan, Connecticut.

Harrisburg Hails O'Hara

2011-11-20T15:49:00.002-05:00

Photo: Writers Clearinghouse/Joan T. Kane

O'Hara Gets His Due in Penn State Capital

O'Hara Society member Christine Goldbeck of Middleton, Pennsylvania, right, lectured 11 November on the Master and A Rage to Live, set in a fictional Harrisburg. With her is member Erica Ramus from Pottsville and Society facilitator Richard Carreno of Philadelphia. Also present was Pal Joan T. Kane of Philadelphia, above seated. After Christine's lecture, about 75 attendees gathered for a screening of the 1965 film A Rage to Live inspired by the book. The lecture was held at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore as part of the Second Annual Harrisburg Book Festival. Carreno also represented @philabooks|booksellers, an on-line bookshop that specializes in books by and about John O'Hara.

Goldbeck Lectures November 11

2011-10-27T20:26:00.001-04:00

A Rage to Live Gets
Harrisburg Home-town Treatment

Friday, November 11th
At the Midtown Scholar Bookstore:

6:30-7:30 PM: “John O’Hara’sHarrisburg”: Christine Goldbeck discusses the best-selling 1949 novel A Rage to Live.

An award-winning writer and artist, Goldbeck is the author of a short-story collection entitled A Tribute to O’Hara and Other Stories (2000). She has lectured on how “All Writing is Regional” at centennial celebrations for John O’Hara, and she developed Pennsylvania high school curriculum materials on how “O’Hara Works Endure Time, Criticism.” The owner of Arts on Union in Middletown, PA, since 1989, Goldbeck received an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College. As Executive Director of the PA House of Representatives’ Urban Affairs Committee, she daily tackles issues like land reform, blight, urban planning, housing, and poverty. She has extensively examined how living in Pennsylvania inspired John O’Hara’s stories:

"O’Hara did for northeastern Pennsylvania, and particularly the hard coal region, what writers before him, such as Sherwood Anderson, who wrote “Winesburg, Ohio” had done; he recorded the social history of a place and time. In addition to Schuylkill County, he also wrote New York City, Hollywood, and Pennsylvania’s Dauphin County, home to Harrisburg, the state capital, which O’Hara named Fort Penn, into his novels. His stories are social history lessons that chronicle the lives and times of people in the early part of the 20th century. To read O’Hara is to know, beyond doubt, what people wore, where they worked and how much they earned, to which clubs they belonged, what kinds of automobiles they drove and what games they played."

Evening in Samarra at Yale

2011-10-13T23:24:00.000-04:00

The Show Will Go On

Hi Richard
Sorry I won't be seeing you at Yale this weekend. If any of the Society members are able to make the trip, the details for the show: Saturday Oct 15th, Sudler Hall 7:30.
I'll be staying over at the Quinnipiac Club so perhaps that could be a spot for drinks after the performance. Any questions, my cell# 416 875 0405.
Thanks so much for posting!

Best,
Jonathan Higgins

O'Hara Gets Academic Respect

2011-09-28T13:36:00.000-04:00

School Librarian Suggests The Master

Check it out: Appointment in Samarra

by John O'Hara (1934) - NYSUT United - September 16, 2011

Recommended by: Kathy Fester, NYLA member and former school librarian at Southside High School, where she was a member of the Rockville Centre Teachers Association.
Suitable for: High school students
Why I chose it: This novel has a frank depiction of "middle America" during Prohibition Era and the Jazz Age, showing the fall of an upper-class middle-aged man within a few critical days. O'Hara is easy to read, has great character development, and shows today's high school students that what they are often curious about (peers, sex, drinking) was common to their great-grandparents' era.
What I like best: The book is easy to discuss, with its written portrayals of class, society, family structures, unions, coal-mining, speak-easy life, mention of radio and news of the time. Note that O'Hara's books present mature topics including, sexuality, addiction, violence and gangs, using the slang and language of that period. Once students start reading this author (best known for his book "BUtterfield 8"), they will continue!
How teachers can use this book: It is perfect for cross-curricular English/ social studies for this time period of American history in the 20th century. Readers can visit the John O'Hara Society at http://oharasociety.blogspot.com. Also, check out http://www.libraries.psu.
"Check it Out" features books recommended to teachers and parents.

Submitted by Dr. Charles Epstein, from New York State University teachers magazine.

In New York Times Book Review...

2011-09-26T17:56:00.000-04:00

... Roger Ebert's Teacher Calls O'Hara:

'A first-rate second-rate writer.'

In Maureen Dowd's review Sunday of Ebert's new memoir, Life Itself, she quotes Ebert's former teacher at the University of Illinois, Daniel Curley, as denoting O'Hara to that category. Sinclair Lewis also so desiginated by Curley. No comment from Roger Ebert.

Contact us at JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com. We're always looking for contributors and comment. Join the conversation! © 2011 Writers Clearinghouse Est. 1976 @ Fabyan, Connecticut.

VERY RARE O'HARA FIRST...

2011-09-26T17:46:00.001-04:00

... Hope of Heaven Now Available
from @philabooks|booksellers

VG/G 1938 Harcourt First $125.00. 20 Percent off to Society members. Contact Richard via philabooks@yahoo.com for details.

Contact us at JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com. We're always looking for contributors and comment. Join the conversation! © 2011 Writers Clearinghouse Est. 1976 @ Fabyan, Connecticut.

Publication Rights

2011-09-15T10:33:00.000-04:00

Here's How -- Thank you, Sandra!

Dear Richard,
I hope that Ms. Barahona received an email that I sent to her in response to her direct query to me. My reply might be of interest to other O'Hara fans on your list.

Requests for permissions should be directed to the Wylie Agency, who represent John O'Hara's Estate attorneys. Here is their contact information:

Wylie Agency
250 West 57th Street
Suite 2106
New York, NY 10107
Phone 1 212 246 0069
Fax 1 212 586 8953
Email: mail@wylieagency.com

This information can be found in the finding aid for our O'Hara Papers (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/dam/psul/up/digital/findingaids/2409.htm).

Your readers might also like to know about a useful database called WATCH (Writers, Artists, and Their Copyright Holders), which is run by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. They provide contact information for prominent creative figures. Here is their site:

http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu/

Sincerely,

Sandra Stelts
Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts
Penn State Libraries

Calling All Pals: BUtterfield 8 Request

2011-09-13T23:08:00.000-04:00

Seeks Translation Rights

Re: "Butterfield 8" translation rights

FROM:

Thank you very much for all your help.

I have been trying to find Wylie O'Hara Holahan's details but it has proven to be quite difficult. The closest thing I have come across is the library of Pennsylvania State University. I have sent them an email asking for any help they might be able to provide regarding the purchase of BUtterfield 8's translation rights into Spanish.

Would you know how to contact O'Hara's daughter?

Many thanks all the same for your prompt reply and all the information,

Kind regards,

Lucia Barahona

Editor

Editorial Automática

0044 7826801918

Pal Jim Checket R.I.P.

2011-09-13T22:59:00.000-04:00

Memorial Set for 22 October

On Sunday, 9/11 of all dates, Jim passed away at 5:40 P.M. His health had declined quite rapidly during the previous week and we were able to spend that time together 24/7 as he had requested one week before; they were precious moments. The glory and joy at the time of his death was expressed through slight smile and his eyes looking upward. I will miss him dearly - the house is extremely quiet with no concentrator giving him breath. Even the cats sensed, and still do, a change in our "family" dynamics.

A memorial/celebration service will be held at St. Jacob's Kimmerlings Church on Saturday, October 22nd at 2 PM. If you are free and need directions, let me know.

Love,

Sally (Miller)

2012 AGM Set

2011-08-15T16:59:00.000-04:00

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING SCHEDULED FOR 28 JANUARY, 2012

(See box in right gutter for details)

NYC Summer Field Trip

2011-08-15T16:53:00.000-04:00

At Connelly's, from left, Robert Knott, Steven Goldleaf,
Richard Carreno, Jackie Atkins, Brian Maxwell, Jessica Rettig,
Robert Saliba, Jenny Saliba, Joan T. Kane, KC Rice, and Peter Frishauf

Lunch, Screening, Some Business
at New York Summer Meeting

About a dozen Society members (see photo above) shared lunch, comradrie, and hoisting a toast to the Master during our annual summer meeting in New York.

Robert Montgomery: Looking sober

The lunch was held Saturday, 13 August, at Connelly's on 47th Street, whereupon thanks to Pal Robert Knott we saw Robert Montgomery's portrayal of Julian English in a television tele-play of Appointment in Samarra. The screening was held at the Paley Center. Many thanks, Robert, for arranging this highlight!

We retreated to a pub -- aptly named Butterfield 8 -- for drinks, coffee, and dessert.

Editor

2011-07-12T14:02:00.001-04:00

Frank Zachary, formerly of Town & Country

John O'Hara as Journalist

When he moved to Pittsburgh, O'Hara had thoughts of suicide. Maybe that's what happens when you move to Pittsburgh. He also had thoughts of journalistic grandeur and became the editor of the Bulletin Index. Jay Felden, the new editor of Town & Country, reports in this month's issue that it was there that T&G's former editor, the legendary Frank Zachary, met O'Hara. Both of them were starting out.

Better Late Than Never

2011-06-09T23:44:00.000-04:00

O'Hara's Novels Still 'Arresting'

That's what Benjamin Schwarz writes in reviewing The Sky's the Limit by Steven Gaines (Little, Brown), a book that describes so-called Good Buildings, or particular luxury buildings in New York. '...[W]hat makes this book really fascinating is what makes suc dated books as Cleveland Amory's and Stephen Birmingham's portraits of the rich and well-born, and John O'Hara's novels, still arresting: the analysis of minute social gradations within the privileged classes.' The Atlantic Monthly, May 2005.

Contact us at JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com. We're always looking for contributors and comment. Join the conversation! © 2011 Writers Clearinghouse Est. 1976 @ Fabyan, Connecticut.

Information, Please

2011-05-28T15:15:00.001-04:00

Author Requests

From: Jeffrey Frank

To: JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com
Sent: Wednesday, 18 May 2011, 11:20
Subject: JOH question
Hello,
I'm wondering if the Society has quick access to some of the columns that John O'Hara wrote for the Herald Tribune in the 1960s. I'm interested in (I think there were two) the onte that he did about Richard Nixon.
I know that the Trib is on microfiche at the NYPL, but the Society's help would be greatly appreciated.
With every good wish,
Jeffrey
www.jeffreyfrank.com

Your Thoughts?

2011-05-09T22:03:00.001-04:00

O'Hara Field Trip: Your Thoughts?
Post Here, or E-Mail Richard via JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com

O'Hara Society Field Trip 13 August: A Correspondence

From: Richard Carreno
My recommendations aren't new; but they remain UNVISITED sites. In no chronological order:

Belle and O'Hara apt;
8 East 52nd Street

Pickwick Arms
230 East 51st Street (Second/Third Aves)

Quentin Reynolds and O'Hara
114 East 53rd Street (1934)

London Terrace
470 West 24th Street (1937)

Rooming House (First Digs)
107 West 43rd Street
103 East 46th Street

From: Robert Knott:
Here are some additional thoughts:

-Paley Center, 25 West 52nd. They are open from 12-6. Because "Appointment" is digitized, more than two people can watch at once. We can all proceed to the library floor, load the program and watch it at the same time with two people looking at each screen. Admission to the museum is $10, $8 for seniors and allows us 2 hours of library time, enough to watch this one hour program.

I feel like we have already hit most of the other obvious targets, but there are always the residences that we did not look at last time:

103 East 46th (between Lex and Vanderbilt)

107 West 43rd (between 6th and 7th)

Pickwick Arms Club, 230 East 51st (2nd and 3rd)

Another idea within walking distance might be quick visits to the Broadway theatres where "Pal Joey" has played. The original production seems to have divided its run between three different houses: The Ethel Barrymore on 47th; the Shubert on 44th; the St. James on 44th.

I will try to arrange a meal or drink at BUtterfield 8 in the next few weeks and get a feel of the place and whether or not it might be too crowded for us to congregate at some point during the day.

Let me know your thoughts. I will drop a check in the mail re: "Chips." I didn't know you were working on that. Will be interested to see what you've put together.

From: Richard Carreno
Well done! A brilliant find. My feeling is that we shud go to BUtterfield 8 for post-tour drinks -- much cheaper than Algonquin. It's NOT the price re Connolly's necessarily, but OTHERwise we really after NO post-tour site.

From: Robert Knott:
I'm hoping to send a more robust e-mail later today with suggestions, but wanted to get your reaction to this unbelievably appropriate resturant/bar: http://www.butterfield8nyc.com/ I don't know how crowded they get, but I wondered if this might be an idea for lunch instead of Connolly's, or maybe drinks later. It's a little further south and might be a touch pricier. Let me know your thoughts and I can investigate more.

BUtterball 4

2011-04-03T20:20:00.000-04:00

Despite her Academy
Award Liz Disses O'Hara Film

Elizabeth Taylor, who died last month, was miscast in the 1960 stinker potboiler rehash BUtterfield 8, the film version of the John O'Hara novel. And she knew it. According to 4 April edition of New York, she 'hated' the picture and referred to it BUtterball 4. Sure sounds like a slam. Meaning what exactly isn't explained.

--RDC

Hemingway and O'Hara

2011-03-28T19:17:00.001-04:00

Louis Auchincloss

Hem Takes Another Swipe at the Master

'Ernest Hemingway is supposed to have said of John O'Hara that when he died, he'd go to Yale.'

Quoted by Louis Auchincloss, A Voice from Old New York: A Memoir of My Youth, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co., 2010.

Contact us at JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2010 Writers Clearinghouse. Est. 1976 @ Fabyan, Connecticut.

$5,500 Gets You an 'Appointment'

2011-03-13T13:57:00.001-04:00

O'Hara First on Offer
Bauman Rare Books of Philadelphia is offering a first 1934 edition of APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA for $5,500. This 'in scarce orginal dust jacket.' Condition isn't cited. For more information, contact Bauman at 800.972.2862.

2011-02-03T13:11:00.000-05:00

Finally, O'Hara Gets Yale's Love!

John O'Hara finally is getting some respect at Yale.

He couldn't get admitted. He couldn't get an honorary degree. He never got tapped as a Yale Club member.

But thanks to Jonathan Higgins, a Bostonian and an MFA graduate from Temple University, a new play that he created highlighting the Master and his masterpiece, An Appointment in Samarra, will top Yale's theatre offerings this autumn.

An Evening in Samarra: An Appointment with John O'Hara, will be held in New Haven on Saturday, 15 October, in Sudler Hall, with a tentative start time of 8 p.m.

The play, developed by The Actors Imagaination Studio in Toronto, is part of the university's Elizabethan Club centenary line-up, according to Pal Jonathan. It's directed by Michael Hanrahan. Music was arranged and will be performed
by James Scott.

The play's action takes place at the Elizabethan Club, circa 1957, and in New York City, circa 1933, Jonathan said.

As previously announced, the Society has scheduled attendance at the play as a special event. Everyone will be on their own for overnight digs. But I'll be planning pre-theatre/post-theatre activities (drinks, dinner?), hopefully with Jonathan, as the time approaches.

Still no idea about ticket prices. Look updates here!

--RDC

Update from AGM

2011-01-30T14:44:00.001-05:00

Master's Memory Invoked at 29 Jan AGM

From left, Joan T. Kane, Carol Gramer, Jenny Saliba, Robert Saliba, Robert Knott (Photo: John O'Hara Society)

I've joined the picture, second from left. (Photo: John O'Hara Society)

We gathered, as usual, at the Nassau Inn, Princeton, New Jersey, for lunch and an Annual General Meeting to remember the Master. We had hoped for a greater attendence yesterday (Saturday, 29 January); only seven members showed up. But given the weather conditions in the Northeast, perhaps that was not unexpected. It snowed heavily last week, and it was coming down again when he headed home to Philadelphia in the late afternoon.

The good news on this front was that I heard from many members, mostly via our Group Page at Facebook.com, that they wish they could attended. Many more opportunities will be available. (By the way, can't resist mentioning that the canopy of snow that covered the trees as we headed north was beyond beautiful).

Two meetings have been firmed up. One, this summer in New York. We will tour more O'Hara related sites, Part II of our very successful excursion we conducted last summer. As a special, we will be attending an O'Hara theatre night at Yale in October. Details about those two dates will follow.

Of course, we're looking for as many Pals as possible to attend. Someone asked if you had to an O'Hara expert to join the Society or attend meetings. Absolutely not! Just bring your curiousity.

Robert Knott distributed another DVD, 'He Married His Wife,' a 1940 picture with Joel McCrea that O'Hara received a screenplay credit for. Also we got another CD in a series of radio show remembrances about O'Hara.

We also launched an informal contest to come up with a Society logo. Anyone can enter. We'll probably have a prize for the winner. At this point, I have no clue what that might be. We're thinking -- in keeping with the Master's club-mania -- that this winning logo design will be incorporated into a necktie, a pin, and signet ring. OK, that last one, the ring, is a bit much. But we'll see where we'll go with this.

Contest submissions, as an attachment, should be made to me at JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com. Of course, please send all your personal details so that you can get credit.

--- Richard Carreno

Great Ear for Dialog...

2010-11-20T16:55:00.001-05:00

... And its Repetition

America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly frm barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilisation. -- George Clemenceau

America -- a country that has leapt from barbarism to decadence without touching civilisation. -- John O'Hara

As quoted in But I Wouldn't Want to Live There!, edited by Michael Cader and Lisa Cader

Contact us at JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2010 Writers Clearinghouse. Est. 1976 @ Fabyan, Connecticut.

Do We Like the Same O'Hara Books?

2010-10-12T13:10:00.001-04:00

I just joined Shelfari to connect with other book lovers. Come see the books I love and see if we have any in common. Then pick my next book so I can keep on reading.
Join me on Shelfari!
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Richard CARRENO

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Wrestling in Pottsville

2010-10-04T22:16:00.004-04:00

New Member Knew O'Hara's Nephew
By Lee Hammel
I have to thank you for sending me the link to the John O'Hara Society. I joined it. And I believe that I'm the only member of the society to have wrestled his nephew. I grew up in O'Hara's hometown Pottisville, and was on the wrestling team with O'Hara's nephew.

O'Hara was scrupulously ignored in Pottsville while I was there, because so many of the townspeople are recognizable in his books, and they didn't appreciate it. The city libary did not carry his books back then.

Anyway, hope all is well with you.

The Rodney Dangerfield of Belles Lettres

2010-10-04T22:10:00.003-04:00

No Respect for John O'Hara
By Richard Carreno
John O'Hara gets no respect. Nothing new about that. O'Hara, Pottsville native, is the Rodney Dangerfield of American belles lettres.

Members of the John O'Hara Society, based in Philadelphia, have been lamenting that forever. Fitzgerald. Hemingway. Even John Updike get the props. O'Hara gets dissed.

The latest instance: Last Sunday in The Philadelphia Inquirer. John Timpane dredges up a story about a 'global' conference of the John Updike Society in Reading. Timpane gets all gushy about Updike being a Pennsylvania author. You mean the guy who spent most of his life in New England.

Sure. O'Hara, America's greatest 20th century short writer, lived most of his life outside of PA, as well. But unlike Updike, PA never left O'Hara.

Timpane notes fan groups for Mark Twain and Hemingway. Never a mention of the John O'Hara Society.

That's not new, as well.

I've been interviewed by at least two Inquirer reporters. Nothing ever gets in print.
As always, John O'Hara gets no respect.

Who Are We?

2010-07-29T21:13:00.000-04:00

The Society by the Stats
Not surprisingly, most of the visitors to this Society blog are from the United States, according to a new breakdown of 'hits' to the John O'Hara Society website.

In descending order, visitors from the following countries also have us a look-see:
Canada
United Kingdom
Latvia
Russia
Germany
Maldova
South Korea
Malaysia

Any comments?

Contact us at JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2010 Writers Clearinghouse. Est. 1976 @ Fabyan, Connecticut.

John O'Hara Books Discounted for You!

2010-07-17T15:41:00.000-04:00

Philadelphia | 17 July 2010

Greetings, Friends!

Welcome back to many of you who were previous buyers of books by and about John O'Hara.

@philabooks|booksellers has consolidated its O'Hara catalog at www.philabooks.webs.com as a one-stop shop for all things O'Hara.

Until September 1 2010, it's even easier to stock up on your books by and about one of your favorite authors. Reference this e-mail when ordering from www.philabooks.webs.com, and get an automatic 15 percent discount on your total order of $20 or more.(Some restrictions apply). Take an addition 5 percent off if you settle your purchase through PayPal.

Let me also introduce, as well, O'Hara's fan page at the John O'Hara Society. Simply go to www.OHaraSociety.blogspot.com. Membership is free!

Contact me anytime for any special needs.

Richard

Cordially,

Richard @philabooks|booksellers

@philabooks|booksellers philadelphia+washington | www.philabooks.webs.com

John O'Hara Society|Philadelphia | www.OHaraSociety.blogspot.com

No, It Wasn't Drinking

2010-07-11T14:01:00.004-04:00

O'Hara's Social Disease

By Richard Carreno
The late Sheilah Graham, the Hollywood gossip columnist, is almost always linked to F. Scott Fitzgerald as his mistress for the last three and a half years of his besotted life before the author's death, in 1940, at 44. Of course, Graham helped create this hardly missing link by mining her relationship with Fitzgerald for all it was worth in a series of tell-all books that told all -- over and over again.

Despite that repetition, her reminisces are interesting, engaging, and rather frank. (Fitzgerald used to call her a 'cunt' and, when drunk, wouldn't be shy in telling utter strangers that she was a 'good lay').

Less known, at least to me, was how John O'Hara would keep popping in Fitzgerald's life in Hollywood as a personal guest in Encino, fellow party guest in Hollywood, or just as general New York-connected hanger-on.

But was the big, brash, bear-like O'Hara shy around Graham, a knock-out blond with a sharp tongue and even sharper eye for the rich and the powerful?

O'Hara was no Lothario. Graham, on the other hand, was known to have had her share of men. (Before Scott, she counted eight in all, according her tally reported in The Real F. Scott Fitzgerald: Thirty-Five Years Later, a memoir -- yes, another tell-all -- published in 1976. Let's assume we can multiply that by at least a factor of five).

Somehow, O'Hara got to drive Graham home after she had an interview with Errol Flynn.

Unlike many a squire with a similar opportunity, it seemed that O'Hara didn't want to weazle an invitation to go in and make out. In fact, he left the motor of his car running -- sure sign that he meant to make tracks.

Graham recalled that O'Hara was making it plain that he wasn't about to investigate whether she was a 'good lay' or not.

'Does he think I'm going to rape him or something?' she thought at the time. Ouch!

Besides, Graham reported, O'Hara was suffering from a 'social disease' at the time. How she knew that, she never said.

O'Hara's Other Home-town

2010-07-11T13:46:00.003-04:00

Yes, Philadelphia
By Richard Carreno
Many places have a claim on John O'Hara's literary soul -- and his liver. New York, LA, Princeton, and even, for a time, London. Of course, his heart was in the Heartland, or the 'Region,' as he called the area around his birthplace of Pottsville.

But O'Hara also had another less-explored literary tie to place, that in Philadelphia. That is, until now, thanks to the most recent O'Hara biography, The Genteel John O'Hara, by Pamela C. Mac Arthur. (Peter Lang, Bern, Switzerland, 2009, 304 pp).

MacArthur, who lives in Windsor, Ontario, spent years living amongst the Region's natives, and argues, quite persuasively, that O'Hara -- despite bouts with drink and with his fists -- wasn't the mean-spirited rowdy as he's often dipicted in less-than-flattering portraits and biographies. Looking on the bright side, and digging deep into his Pottsville roots, Mac Arthur makes that case that if wasn't actually always refined, he was at least coated with the patina of bourgeois gentility.

I met Mac Arthur, a new Pal, at the Society's New York field trip last month, and I was pleased to learn that she was familiar with my theory that O'Hara had a stronger bond with Philadelphia than often conceded. (Mac Arthur also cites some on my scribbling on the Master in her text).

O'Hara was, of course, Pennsylvania's most prominent 20th century writer. (No, pendants, I haven't forgotten John Updike). As a youth in Pottsville, about two hours away from Philadelphia by car, it was only natural that O'Hara's growing curiosity about the larger world beyond the Region would draw him to its principal big city, then the US's fourth largest city.

At the time, Pottsvillians, of a certain class, would shop, have their affairs, visit speakeasies and their favourite bootleggers, be entertained at brothels, and be schooled in Philadelphia. (O'Hara's father was a graduate of Penn's medical school).

Even a cursory reading of O'Hara bios show that O'Hara was in and out of Philadelphia all his adult life. Going to the Orchestra, visiting societally well-connected friends, hooking up with its clubs, and even using its hospitals when he was Princeton resident. I've detailed O'Hara's personal, long-term association with Philadelphia -- as well as that of many of his characters -- here and elsewhere.

Still, the idea has never gained much traction. O'Hara in New York, yes. O'Hara in Los Angeles, of course. O'Hara in Philly? Em....

In fact, Mac Arthur observes that the genteel O'Hara found respite in Philadelphia.

Mac Arthur notes the author wished he 'could leave New York and see a place like Philadelphia again.' O'Hara remembered that he got '"a swell kick out of listening to the city noises,"' and he wanted to '"capture that swelling feeling in another city."'

Over time, and over and over again, he did.

LI Off, LA On

2010-07-08T16:46:00.002-04:00

O'Hara: LI and LA
Pal Steve Goldleaf reports that a proposed Field Trip to Long Island wouldn't be promising. In fact 'fultile,' he says. 'O'Hara's home in Quogue has been scraped and replaced by a modernistic montrosty.'

As many of you know, Steve was in Los Angeles in February, and snapped the above pictures of O'Hara sites in West Holywood. The apartment building pictures, of the Ravenwood Apartments, include an interior view. Steve is also posing in front of 471 Landfair Avenue.

Gallery II: NYC

2010-06-15T22:40:00.001-04:00

Steven Goldleaf on Field Trip

Gallery: The Field Trip

2010-06-14T21:05:00.000-04:00

The John O'Hara Society

Richard Carreno/Writers Clearinghouse

New York Field Trip Photo Ops

Contact us at JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2010 Writers Clearinghouse. Est. 1976 @ Fabyan, Connecticut.

O'Hara Takes Manhattan

2010-06-14T20:33:00.002-04:00

Crowd gathers at Connolly's Pub to watch Pal Richard harangue group. Photo/Writers Clearinghouse

New York City Field Trip
New York
After lunch at Connolley's Pub on 47th, off Fifth, about a dozen members soldiered on, well-fed and watered and in good spirits, spending the balmy afternoon Saturday (12 June) hitting several of the notable sites in Mid-town associated with the Master.

Two of them, 21 and the Algonquin, are well-known John O'Hara watering holes, and the later being, as well, sort of a club-room for many former New Yorker staff writers.

From Connolley's, our next stop, a few blocks uptown, was the Italianate palazzo on Madison Avenue that now houses the Palace Hotel.(Remember Lenora Hemsley, 'The Queen of Mean'? She owned the p(a)lace).

Back in the day, though, the building's north wing housed Bennett Cerf's 'serfdom,' Random House. We re-enacted the iconic tableau, of the 1960's, when O'Hara steam-rolled his Silver Cloud Roller into the palazzo's courtyard. There, to be greeted by the fawning Cerf, who, in recognition of another O'Hara publishing event, presented JOH with another engraved, silver cigarette case.

Pal Carol Gramer tried to get us a tour of what might be left of the publisher's HQ, now an urban research centre. She knocked on the door.'The place is closed,' she said.

Onward to 21,just a short hop across Fifth. Drinks? Nibbles? Also closed. No lunch on Saturdays. Still, Carol marched in and inquired of a busy receptionist if we --members of the intrepid John O'Hara Society -- could visit the basement quarters, the site of 21's original speakeasy. The receptionist was duely impressed. 'No,' she said.

Step forward, to the rescue, a tall, well-spoken gentleman who identified himself as 'Rev.' Turns out 'Rev' is a Baptist minister. Also the chief men's room toilet attendant.'The job has been in my family since 1949,' he said. At first, we thought he owned the joint.

We didn't tour the speakeasy, but thanks to Rev we did get a tour of the men's toilet, boasting risque murals over its urinals. Female pals were impressed with thse self-flushing urinals. Apparently, they haven't ever seen such modern contraptions, circa 1965. (Male pals wondered what technological advancements might be found in the ladies loo. We checked. At least, no off-colour murals. What is the meaning of this?).

Rev also gave us a walkabout of the restaurant proper, during which time Pal Steve Goldleaf was videoing the proceedings. (Watch it on YouTube, when we get it posted later this week. If we can figure it out).

Shortly thereafter, We gathered in front the restaurant for a few minutes, getting our bearings before trotting off to the Yale Club. (Vanderbilt Avenue, across from Grand Central Station). But at that point, we noticed that he had 'lost' Steve. After about five minutes later or so, he sheepishly emerged from 21. 'Sorry, I was chatting to Rev.' (Had a Baptist conversion occurred. Steve wasn't talking).

Once we saw the wedding crowd, spilling into Vanderbilt Avenue, in front of the Yale Club, we realised that a visit was near impossible. This, despite Carol Gramer's powers of persuasion.

Plan B. The old HQ of the The New Yorker, off Fifth on 43rd Street. A plaque recognised the building as a 'literary site,' and listed many of the literary luminaries who had set foot through the building's portal. Everyone, that is, except John O'Hara, of course. 'What else is new,' said Pal Robert Saliba.

Actually, nothing. Another plaque screwed into the front of the Algonquin Hotel also had no mention of The New Yorker's most prolific short story writer -- and the one indididual who, by the bye, defined the template of the magazine's short fiction. (Never mind, we're used to that).

What we were also getting used to by this time was getting rebuffed. He had hoped to scamp through 25 West 43rd Street via its arcade to get to 44th Street and the Algonquin. No soap! says the guard. 'But we're, we're members of the John...' says
Carol. Oh, never mind.

We looped around Sixth Avenue instead, nestling ourselves comfortably in the hotel's lounge. A load off our feet. And load from our wallets. Mixed drinks at $18 a shot. Beer at $7 per bottle.

Of course, the Society's storming of Manhattan wasn't all fun and games.

Earlier, thanks to ring-master Pal Richard Carreno, we actually conducted a bit of house-keeping.

Most important, Robert Saliba and Robert Knott were awarded Pal Joey Awards for their work in promoting the cause. Robert S. for his brilliant annotation of Appointment in Samarra. (See separate page at this website, always being updated). Robert K. for tireless efforts in arranging this Field Trip event, as well as being PR agent for our most recent Princeton AGM. (He gets a Pal Joey with a cluster).

Robert K. was also appointed Society Librarian, assigned to maintaining our archive. Robert has also volunteered to to re-record portions of the WVIA-FM tape, as well as some O'Hara-related videos he has in his possession. Robert will also be contacting WVIA-FM officers about archive materials that might want to share with us.

Steve Goldleaf has agreed to contact Wylie O'Hara, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to see if she would kindly join one of our group meetings. Be it in NYC, Cambridge, or Princeton.

Steve is also sending us the aforementioned video for posting at YouTube, and his pix file of O'Hara sites in Los Angeles. We're also hoping to post here a chapter of Steve's murder mystery re the death of F.Scott Fitzgerald. Who was the villan. Sheila Graham? Coca Cola? (Fitz drank 16 bottles of the leaded stuff a day). Or, John O'Hara? Yes, Steve relegates the Master as a Person of Interest.

Thanks to Robert Saliba, our next Field Trip will soon be arranged. Sometime this fall, we're hoping to visit the O'Hara study, transplanted from Princeton to State College, Pennsylvania, at the State University of Pennsylvania. Transportation issues should be addressed to Pal Richard.

Pal Pamela MacArthur has also agreed to arrange that copies of her scholarly work The Genteel John O'Hara be sold through this website. Details to follow. (Editor's note: The Society has abandoned its paid membership category. Wherein once paid-up members received O'Hara materials (ie books, etc.) for free, all items will now be available at cost, excluding postage, from membership HQ (JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com).

A new review of The Genteel John O'Hara will soon be appearing here.

Also attending were Joan T. Kane, Jenny Saliba, Heidi Schubert, Nancy Karvellas, and Helene Ashner.

Evening in Samarra

2010-04-15T10:30:00.000-04:00

Evening in Samarra

An Appointment with John O’Hara

The following was sent to me by Jonathan Higgins, who noted that this play was performed at Harvard University. That was all the additional detail I received. I've written to Jonathan for more information. -- Richard.

Created and Performed by: Jonathan Higgins
Directed by: Michael Hanrahan
Music arranged and performed by: James Scott
Note about the show: The action of the play takes place at the Yale Elizabethan Club circa 1957 and New York City circa 1933.

Biographies

Jonathan Higgins hails from Boston, the setting for a number of his film credits, including Disney’s The Greatest Game Ever Played, The Boondock Saints and Saint Ralph. His roles have ranged broadly from the Boston aristocrat of Greatest Game, to drug dealing on the award winning, The Shield. He has portrayed Darryl F. Zanuck opposite Gregory Hines in Bojangles, a young FDR in CBS’s The Man Who Saved Christmas with Jason Alexander, and the bootlegging Joe Kennedy in Bonanno: A Godfather’s Story.

Other selected credits include starring opposite Samantha Bond and Eli Wallach in the Bookfair Murders, defending troubled Harvey Milk assassin Dan White (Timothy Daley) as attorney Doug Schmidt in Execution of Justice and being fatefully seduced by Mila Jovovich in Bob Rafelson’s No Good Deed. Recent television includes guest stars on The Unit (CBS), the Dresden Files (SciFi), and the Border (CBC) as well as starring in Richard Roy’s Crimes of Passion and the NBC MiniSeries XIII, starring Val Kilmer and Steven Dorf.

A graduate of Phillips Academy Andover and Middlebury College, he received his MFA from
Temple University and spent three years touring classical comedy with the New Vic Theatre of London. Other select theatre includes Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations, Grand Theatre, London, Ontario, Eben , in Desire Under the Elms, Irish Classical Theatre and the original production in Toronto and Los Angeles of John Kolvenbach’s West End hit, On An Average Day. He also premiered Kolvenbach’s Fabuloso, alongside Da Vinci’s Inquest star Nicholas Campbell. He is married with three children and divides his time between Toronto and Los Angeles.

Michael Hanrahan is a native of Chicago but has been living in Canada since 1986. He has spent many seasons at the esteemed Stratford Festival where he was a recipient of the Tyrone Guthrie Aaward. He is a founding member of the internationally acclaimed Soulpepper Theatre Company, where he was recently honored with the Artistic Director Award. Along with Jonathan Higgins, he is the founder of the Actors Imagination Studio.

James Scott has been playing music since childhood when, in the cutest of images, he taught himself to play drums by banging on cardboard boxes with paint mixing sticks. Through his youth he fostered a love of jazz and classical music which continues to infuse his writing and playing. After studying at Wilfred Laurier and York Universities, James has written material and played piano and drums for his own projects and such groups as White Van Speaker Scam, The Daniel Sky Band, Heavy Ethics and King Rig.

(Evening in Samarra was developed at The Actors Imagination Studio, Toronto).

The John O'Hara Gallery...

2010-04-11T15:47:00.004-04:00

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Letters

2010-04-02T22:46:00.003-04:00

Chip off O'Hara Family Tree

I was wondering if anyone knows of a thorough O'Hara family tree. My parents are both from that area of Penn. (Shenendoah, to be exact) and my mom always said that we were somehow distantly related to O'Hara. I am currently writing a research paper on the critical history of O'hara and thought that it might be interesting to have a more personal--and verifiable--piece to it.

Thanks. Ryan Dean
Executive Recruiter

Gayhart & Associates

Cleveland, Ohio

216-861-7010 216-861-7010 216-861-7005(fax) 216-513-7384 216-513-7384 (cell)

Saliba on O'Hara

2010-03-30T20:36:00.002-04:00

O'Hara and the Bourgeoisie

The Genteel John O'Hara
Pamela C. MacArthur
Peter Lang, 2009

By Robert Saliba
There's that scene in BUtterfield 8 where Jim Malloy goes to a party in a New York apartment, gets drunk and obnoxious and starts a fight, and a lot of people say yes, that's John O'Hara -- ignorant, pugnacious, unruly, and when I recall that scene I think of an alternate title to The Genteel John O'Hara: 'Pamela Pushes Back.' This book belongs on the shelf next to Matthew Bruccoli's The O'Hara Concern.

No doubt John O'Hara had his issues, but there was another side to him, and in the preface to her meticulously researched book, Dr. Mac Arthur writes:

"I attempt to portray a loving polished gentleman and family man who suffered from neglect by the literary world yet became not only a literary artist but a gentleman (with the attributes of an ethnographer, geographer and social historian) who recreated "The Anthracite Region" and its people so well that he recorded the late Nineteenth Century and the first half of the American Twentieth Century in novelistic form."

Dr. Mac Arthur begins by demolishing the ugly racial stereotype. John O'Hara was born into a family whose ancestors had been in America for many generations. His parents were educated, well-bred intellectuals. His father, Dr. Patrick O'Hara, was a prominent pioneering medical physician, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

His mother, Katherine Delany O'Hara, was schooled in music and the arts and literature and instilled in her children good manners and a love for learning. The parents were moneyed, clean-living, cultured, and enjoyed a good reputation in the community. You take this family background and upbringing, combine it with superior intelligence and the ability to write, and you see why John O'Hara got where he got.

There's another scene in BUtterfield 8, the one where Jim Malloy is in a speakeasy with Isabel Stannard (one of Caroline's two friends who sail with her to France in June 1925), and he gives his memorable "I am a Mick" diatribe -- meaning that no matter how Americanized and polished he may be, he'll always be that little Irish kid. And Dr. Mac Arthur shows us how John O'Hara was always looking up Mahantongo Street, trying to make it with the WASP aristocracy, particularly those two women -- Margaretta Archbald (the love of his life, who is Natalie in Winter Dance) and Gladys Suender (who is Natalie in From the Terrace).

I've driven through Pottsville and walked its streets and failed to imagine that once upon a time there really was this important city inhabited by the likes of the Froggy Ogdens, Whit Hofmans and Julian Englishes and Joe Chapins, with its men's club, its country club, and its Assembly.

Last January, at the Society's Annual Meeting in Princeton, one of our members, Carol Ritter Wright, told me you could see the once upon a time if you looked at the architecture, and reflecting on that I agree with her.

Dr. Mac Arthur confirms the accuracy of John O'Hara's descriptions. She has lived in Potsville. She has walked its streets, researched its public records, interviewed its citizens. With an enormous amount of hard, meticulous, exhaustive work, she shows how Gibbsville and Pottsville are essentially identical.

John O'Hara got it right. At one time Pottsville, as the center of the anthracite industry, was one of the wealthiest cities in America. There really was an upper class elite - twenty-five leading families who dictated the social customs and mores. There's that part in her book where she takes us through Ten North Frederick and shows us how it reflects the reality of Pottsville with its people and customs. There is also a chapter on the gangster element (Ed Charney et. al.).

We are also shown how John O'Hara was a loving husband and family man. His first marriage broke up, but his second and third marriages were successful.

At the end there is a section on what is being done by many people to revive the John O'Hara reputation, and favorable mention is made of Richard: "Richard D. Carreno, corresponding secretary of the John O'Hara Society based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has resurrected John Henry O'Hara's name with marked success. The Society offers John O'Hara paraphernalia from audio tapes to Carreno's edited John O'Hara Compendium which was published in 2008."

I think all O'Hara fans share an anger at his not being put at the top of the literary establishment, and Dr. Mac Arthur gives us a second reason to be angry. What is the antonym for "genteel"?

***

I also want to mention Dr. Mc Arthur's 1999 John O'Hara's Anthracite Region. It's a narrative accompanied by vintage photographs and postcards, and it is also superb. I saw the photograph of the inside of a department store and said yes, that's exactly what I saw in Appointment in Samarra, that's where Julian stole. The same thing with the freight train, which Julian and Butch hitched when escaping the police. And the picnic grove where Jim Malloy and Isabel Barley had their fling, but not quite: no picnic table, Pamela.

This Month...

2010-03-30T20:35:00.004-04:00

...With O'Hara: April
By Robert Saliba

April 9: Completes Appointment in Samarra.

April 11: Dies at Linebrook.

April 14: Publishes My Turn.

April 29: Birth of Grace Brock Caldwell (Tate) in A Rage to Live.

I think A Rage to Live was a turning point in his career, where he elevated to a higher level in the quality of his writing and stayed on that leverl (with a few exceptions) until his death. A Rage to Live is one of my favorite novels, and I think the critics never did it justice.

O'Hara's...

2010-03-22T17:22:00.002-04:00

Writers Clearinghouse/Richard Carreno

... Digs in London

Chesil Court, West London
52 Chelsea Manor Street

From Americans in London:
'John O'Hara, in May 1938, took a three-month lease on [this] flat found for him by his English publisher, Faber and Faber.... [B]ut the lack of central heating and the failure of the English to enjoy O'Hara's drinking habits cut short [his] stay. Only three short stries can be credited to this period, Richard Wagner: Public Domain?, A Day Like Today, and No Mistakes. Thirty years later, at the Foyle's luncheon in London marking the paperback publication of A Lockwood Concern, a more subdued O'Hara recalled, "On my earlier visits, while I was still a young man, I gave what might be called a series of private lectures in such cultural instititions as the Ivy restaurant, the Savoy Grill, the 400 Club, Quaglino's, the Savage Club, and various locals in S.W.3."'

Samarra Companion Guide Gets Page

2010-03-11T16:45:00.001-05:00

Check Out Robert Saliba's
Samarra Companion Page

The Companion Guide to Appointment in Samarra by Robert G. Saliba is a 32 page alphabetical glossary of the people, places, and things in John O'Hara's 1934 novel. What emerges from this exercise is a vivid description of 1930 America.

It is amazing how the young John O'Hara, in his late twenties when he wrote this masterpiece, was able to cram so much into a relatively short book.

The Guide is available as a free download or for $5 to cover the cost of printing and mailing a hard copy.

Book Review

2010-02-25T17:36:00.003-05:00

John O'Hara:
A Study of the Short Fiction
By Robert Saliba

Although this book, whose author is a O'Hara Society pal Steven Goldleaf, is out of print, my wife, Jenny, obtained a copy for my 70th birthday a few days before the Annual General Meeting in Princeton, where I met the author, the Society's newest member, a Pace University professor, who autographed the book.

This 135-page book (excluding the other materials at the end) is a gem and belongs in the library of every reader of John O'Hara. My advice is never read a John O'Hara short story without having this book next to you as a reference teaching guide.

Years ago, when I began reading John O'Hara, I went to the library and tried to find essays and criticisms that could give me a better understanding of the writings. I read a lot of these that were contemporaneous with the books and stories as they were published, and I was very disappointed. In my sixties then, I had enough self confidence (I wouldn't or couldn't have done this as a college student in my twenties) to reject all these critics (I think John O'Hara once said "The hell with the critics"). I got it and they didn't. And I felt the same way even after ploughing through the later essays of John Updike, Fran Liebowitz and Louis Begley.

This book is different. This author gets it. You can read it in an evening, but you won't get its full impact.

From the 1920's through the 1960's John O'Hara wrote 383 stories. Professor Goldleaf divides these stories into three separate periods - 1920's and 1930's, 1940's and 1950's, and 1960's (When John O'Hara really produced - 150 stories and much longer in average length than the earlier ones). It's all there -- Gibbsville, California, New York.

What I have learned from Professor Goldleaf: There are the stories I've never read. So it's back to basics: Go to the chronology and, beginning with 'The Doctor's Son and other Stories,' get all the books and read all the stories. Then there are the stories I've read but don't remember. So Jenny and I have begun re-reading them again.

Then there are the stories I've read and remember but didn't fully understand until I read Professor Goldleaf's book. On every page this short book drips with insight after insight after insight. Some of these stories I've read several times but still didn't really get the full impact until Professor Goldleaf, a trained academic with no ax to grind, quietly and analytically, with flawless writing style (he doesn't split infinitives) explains them.

In Appointment in Samarra, on Julian's last night, when he's all alone, he plays three records. I got these recordings and listened to them, and as a result I've a much deeper grasp, it's a very emotional thing, as to understanding that scene. (I suppose it could be said that my understanding would be enhanced if I poured whiskey into an empty vase and drank from it, and I haven't done that). With this study of the short fiction, it's not music but rigorous intellectual analysis, and the result is the same as with the music. My life is enriched.

Thanks, Steven.

Some Changes to O'Hara's Original

2010-02-20T13:48:00.002-05:00

Rod Serling, right below
More on 'It'Mental Work,'

the Television Show

By Richard Rabicoff

More on the Bob Hope Chrysler Theater presentation of It's Mental Work, from Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0528190/.

The production was actually December 20, 1963. It was originally scheduled for November 22, 1963, but postponed due to NBC's coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

My comment:
Among other adaptational travesties, the lawyer Conn in John O'Hara's original (no doubt Jewish) was changed to Vito Conte (no doubt Italian) in the TV script. Is it possible that Serling thought that having a Jewish shyster would be perceived as anti-Semitic?

Also the black assistant played by Archie Moore was the recipient of several racial barbs from the Italian. No doubt the liberal Serling wanted to give the O'Hara added "relevance" by adding a civil rights subtheme.

Richard Rabicoff
Perry Hall, MD 21128

There with O'Hara Ghost

2010-02-02T13:03:00.002-05:00

AGM at Nassau Inn, Princeton:
Afternoon of Saturday, 30 January

From left, Joan Kane; Sharon who accompanied Steve Goodleaf; Charlie Epstein with Catol Gramer; Robert and Jenny Saliba; Robert Knott; Richard Carreno; Bill and Carol Ritter Wright. (That's a photo of Bill Bradley, former US Senator and Princeton graduate, top left).

Contact us at JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2010 Writers Clearinghouse, Est. 1976 @ Fabyan, Connecticut.

From Roberta Saliba

2010-02-02T00:04:00.000-05:00

New Companion Guide to Samarra

I went on OHara.blogspot.com, but wasn't quite sure how to post the following:

Today, January 31, 2010, is the 105th anniversary of John O'Hara's birth at 125 Mahantongo Street, Pottsville, Pennsylvania, son of Dr. Patricia H. and Katherine Delaney O'Hara.

Yesterday's Annual General Meeting in Princeton reminded me of a passage from From the Terrace, where Alfred Eaton, a student in his Princeton dormitory room in January 1917, reads a newspaper clipping of the murder-suicide of his old girl friend Norma Budd and her paramour:

"Alfred re-read the newspaper and put it down and looked out the window and saw nothing but what there was to see: the hard ground, some of it dug up for trench warfare exercises; the leafless trees; the young men in civilian clothing and some in the uniform of the officers' training units; the corners of dormitories; the tops of towers; the groundkeeper's wagon. There was not a woman in sight and not a man in this little world of men who had known Norma Budd, who had felt anything with her. He noticed a man with a Krag slung from his shoulder; an older, Regular Army man, a sergeant. who was probably on his way to teach some younger men to shoot."

Page 203, Random House, 1958.

I also want to review Pam MacArthur's and Steven Goldleaf's books and make short mention of my own project on the Companion Guide to Appointment in Samarra.

AGM

2010-02-01T23:54:00.003-05:00

New DVD?

Thanks, Richard. I wish I could have made the meeting. What is the new DVD?

I see in Internet Move Database (imd.com) that Robert Loggia will be starring a movie called "Over the River and Through the Wood(s)" but there is no other information. Could this be an O'Hara adaptation?

Richard Rabicoff
9356 Indian Trail Way
Perry Hall, MD 21128

Contact us at JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2009 Writers Clearinghouse, Est. 1976 @ Fabyan, Connecticut.

2010-01-31T17:18:00.000-05:00

AGM Notes
The big news from yesterday's 3rd Annual General Meeting, held in Princeton, New Jersey, is the elimination of paid membership.

It was decided at last year's AGM, held in Philadelphia, that the Society would create two classes of membership. It would continue free membership, open to all, and paid membership (at $25 per annum). Those subscribing to the paid membership received 'free' premiums.

Robert Knott noted that the reasoning behind the paid membership -- to encourage membership growth and participation -- was not successful.

The Society has about 25 paid members, representing an ongoing core group. Another 30 or so on our e-mail alert list. About 45 separate members are listed on our Facebook.com fan page.

With the phasing out of the paid membership, it was agreed that preimums will be now distributed at cost, either by direct contact with individual members or by contact with the corresponding secretary at JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com. Thanks to Robert, another O'Hara-related DVD was distributed yesterday. Notice of new premiums will be posted at this website.

It was also agreed that 'field trip' to O'Hara sites will be conducted this summer, in June, in New York City. An itinerary is now being drafted, and also will be posted here. If you have and ideas about places to visit in New York, please contact the corresponding secretary.

Everyone also agreed that greater particpation, in an inter-active way, with the website needs to be encouraged.

We are also hoping to arrange for another field trip the Master's study at Pennsylvania State University, in State College.

Yesterday's AGM, attended by 11 Pals, was held at an old O'Hara haunt, the Tap Room in the Nassau Inn. Our lunched lasted almost four hours, and involved vigourous informal disccussion, as well as the heretofore business matters.

Photos to be posted.

O'Hara Stepson and Protege Dies

2010-01-06T08:55:00.001-05:00

C.D.B. Bryan, 73
C. D. B. Bryan, a novelist and journalist whose 1976 book, "Friendly Fire," about the accidental death of a soldier in Vietnam, the consequent anguish of his family and their rage at the Army and the federal government, became one of the enduring works of reportage on the Vietnam War, died Tuesday at home in Guilford, Conn. He was 73.

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Edith Pavese

C. D. B. Bryan

The cause was cancer, said his son, St. George Bryan.

Mr. Bryan's career was that of an old-fashioned man of letters.. He wrote both novels and nonfiction books; he taught writing at Colorado State University and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop; he contributed articles to many magazines; and he was a voluminous book reviewer, including for The New York Times Book Review, where over the years he assessed works by Tom Wolfe, Richard Ford, Michael Herr, Erica Jong, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., William F. Buckley and Julio Cortazar, among others.

But his career was most distinguished by "Friendly Fire," a book that began as a single magazine article for The New Yorker and was subsequently serialized in several consecutive issues. It was the story of the death of Michael Eugene Mullen, a draftee from LaPorte City, Iowa, who, on Feb. 18, 1970, was killed by shrapnel from an errant artillery shell fired by his fellow troops. His parents, Peg and Gene, doubted the Army's official account of his death. They were frustrated and aggrieved by the shabby treatment their further inquiries received, and the book traces their path — focusing on Peg Mullen's life-altering outrage — from quietly patriotic Americans, members of what President Richard M. Nixon called "the silent majority," to antiwar activists.

"The great war stories do not deal solely with the death of soldiers but with the death of idealism," Robert Sherrill wrote of "Friendly Fire" in The Times Book Review, "and Bryan's handling of that theme is certainly the finest that has come out of the Vietnam War."

Courtlandt Dixon Barnes Bryan, known as Courty, was born in Manhattan on April 22, 1936, and grew up in various locations, but mostly in Doylestown, Pa. His father, Joseph Bryan III, was a magazine writer and editor who had a fascination with unidentified flying objects, a subject C. D. B. Bryan would explore himself in his final book, published in 1995 after an academic symposium that examined claims of alien visitations: "Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: Alien Abductions, UFOs and the Conference at Massachusetts Institute of Technology." His parents divorced when he was in his late teens, and his mother, Katharine Lansing Barnes, married the novelist John O'Hara, who was especially influential in turning the young man toward writing fiction.

Young Courty Bryan was educated at several private schools and was thrown out of two of them, one for cheating, an incident central to an early short story, "So Much Unfairness of Things," which appeared in The New Yorker and grew into his first novel, "P.S. Wilkinson." It won the Harper Prize, given by the publisher Harper & Row to the finest manuscript turned in by an unknown writer, in 1965.

In spite of his spotty academic career, he was admitted to Yale. After graduation he served in the Army in South Korea in the late 1950s, an unhappy episode that also found its way into the novel.

Mr. Bryan was married four times and divorced three. He is survived by his wife, Mairi Graham Bryan, whom he married in 2007 after they had been together 15 years; a sister, Joan Gates, of Richmond, Va.; two children from his marriage to Phoebe Miller, St. George Bryan, known as Saint, and Lansing Andolina, both of Tacoma, Wash.; a daughter, Amanda Bryan, of Charlotte, N.C., from his marriage to Judith Snyder; two stepchildren, Derek Simonds, of Manhattan, and Tiffany Simonds-Frew, of Guilford, from his marriage to Monique Widmer; and four grandchildren.

"Friendly Fire" was made into an Emmy Award-winning television movie that starred Carol Burnett and Ned Beatty as the Mullens and Sam Waterston as Mr. Bryan.

Mr. Bryan's other books include the novels "The Great Dethriffe," which is set in the 1950s and '60s and consciously parallels "The Great Gatsby," and "Beautiful Women, Ugly Scenes," about a middle-aged man's failed marriages. He also wrote coffee-table books about the National Geographic Society and the National Air and Space Museum.

Mr. Bryan was a smoker, a drinker and an avid and gifted conversationalist who effortlessly commanded the attention of people around a dinner table, his son said. He will be cremated in advance of a memorial service early next year, St. George Bryan added; until then, his remains are to be stored in martini shakers.

Sign in to RecommendNext Article in Books (4 of 36) » A version of this article appeared in print on December 18, 2009, on page A41 of the New York edition.

WVIA-FM on O'Hara

2009-12-29T20:20:00.004-05:00

For Discussion?

Listening again to 'The O'Hara Interviews,' recorded by WVIA-FM, the public radio station in Scranton, during its year-long celebration of John O'Hara in 1995. Some interviews are great, ie, with Professor Charles Bassett. In contrast, the late Professor Frank McShane of Columbia, a noted O'Hara biographer, seems unprepared -- reciting one platitude after another. Let's review at 30 January AGM.

--- Richard.

Penn State Library Queries for Help

2009-12-24T19:19:00.003-05:00

Murder in Lebanon?

From Sanda Stelts, State College, Pennsylvania:

A researcher called us today and asked which O'Hara book contains this quote. Can any of you help identify the book -- or whether it is indeed a quote from O'Hara?

'If you want to get away with murder, go to Lebanon, Pennsylvania.'

Contact:
Sandra Stelts
Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts
The Pennsylvania State University Libraries
104 Paterno Library
University Park, PA 16802-1808
Phone: (814) 865-1793 (814) 865-1793 (814) 865-1793 Voice mail: (814) 863-5388 (814) 863-5388 (814) 863-5388
Fax: (814) 863-5318 E-mail: sks5@psu.edu

A Hopeful

2009-12-18T01:43:00.002-05:00

New Pal Wants to Attend AGM

I'd love to attend the Princeton gathering to talk about my favorite author with others who share my belief that he was one helluva writer and is vastly underappreciated. January weather is a bit of a hassle in this corner of the country, but it might be possible.

Meantime: Does anybody know whether The Farmers Hotel is available as a play to be produced and staged by a theater group? I just re-read it for the umpteenth time and would love to do it with the group that I've worked with for years.
Carol Ritter Wright,
in a suburb of Rochester, New York

Editors Note: If you can help Pal Carol, do so here. Do NOT e-mail me, please.

Old Pix

2009-12-10T19:27:00.000-05:00

Pal Matt in Pottsville
I came across these pix, in hardcopy, recently, of Pal Matt Bruccoli, one of the Master's greatest biographers, and me at a O'Hara meeting in Pottsville in 2007, a year before Matt died. I first got to know Matt in the late 1970's, via telephone, when I was a reporter for the Worcester Telegram, and later The Boston Globe, when I was reporting on literary matters, including John O'Hara and the late George Frazier. Matt was always a great source.
--RDC

Society 2010 AGM in Princeton

2009-12-10T19:07:00.002-05:00

Society AGM Set for Princeton in January

The John O'Hara Society Annual General Meeting will be held Saturday, 30 January, at the Nassau Inn in Princeton, New Jersey.

Pals will meet at 12:30 PM for drinks, and later for lunch at the Inn. Settlement of bills will be an individual matter. There will no formal programme. The AGM will honour the 105th birthday of the Master, born 31 January 1905 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.

The meeting is open to one and all, though only paid-up members will be able to raise business issues and vote on these matters. Discussion regarding new premiums is welcome. So are paid membership applications.

After the lunch, members might want to explore the Master's adopted hometown, including the Nassau Club, his gravesite, his former house, and the like.

If anyone has O'Hara ephemera, books, and the like that they wish to give away or sell, that's welcome too.

A RSVP to Richard Carreno at JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com is requested. But not required. There's frequent train service from Philadelphia and New York to Princeton.

Questions, suggestions to Richard at 267|253|1086.

AGM

2009-12-08T20:16:00.000-05:00

In Princeton? In January?

Thinking that our AGM might be a reprise of our very successful luncheon last August at the Nassau Inn in Princeton, New Jersey? Your thoughts. Even if you're not planning to attend, your opinion is requested. Contact me at JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com. Will announce time, date, place, etc., after 1 January. See you there!

Contact us at JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2009 Writers Clearinghouse, Est. 1976 @ Fabyan, Connecticut.

Welcome New Pal!

2009-11-22T10:39:00.002-05:00

Steven Goldleaf, O'Hara Lit Critic, Joins Society

Steven Goldleaf writes, 'A student of the plain style of American fiction, I'm ever amazed that John O'Hara remains so largely unrecognized as one of its greatest practitioners. It could be argued (and I have) that he is more direct than Hemingway, less obscurely grand than Fitzgerald, less mysterious than Salinger, more substantial than Yates, more accessible than Wolff, etc., and stands atop the lovely heap of recent American plain-stylists, all in all. In particular I'm interested in his short fiction, though I agree with the argument made here that FROM THE TERRACE (and other long works) broke much new ground in merging narrative with subtle experimentation. I think very highly of O'Hara as a careful stylist of prose, and look forward to many discussions of his work on this fine site, which is a welcome addition to O'Hara studies.

'I'm a professor of English at Pace University in lower Manhattan , and author of some criticism (including a study of O'Hara's short fiction) and some fiction as well. Here's a publicity shot of me, taken (but never used) for the non-existent dust cover of my book on O'Hara's short stories.'

(Steven Goldleaf is editor of the Pace University Press, New York).

The John O'Hara Society Wishes...

2009-11-21T18:05:00.000-05:00

A Happy Thanksgiving

Membership Query

2009-11-16T21:13:00.002-05:00

I Hear You Knocking

Recieved from Brad Knapp:

If you could point me in the right direction, I'm looking for what might be a rather obscure reference John O'Hara once made regarding his inability to gain admittance to an Ivy League school.

He made some comment to the effect that despite that lack of education, "everything he needed to know he obtained at Westwood University anyway" -- something like that. I don't recall where I read this, which would have been many years ago, and I'm trying to find a way to trace it.

Can you please point me in the right direction? If I can find the source, it might be useful in a publication that involves a slice of Schuylkill County history (Westwood is a section of Pottsville ).

[Editor's Note: Any clues? Leave them here].

O'Hara Gets Referenced

2009-11-16T19:57:00.005-05:00

New Literary Credit

By James MacDonald

Martin Kich, of Wright State University, has written an entry for John O'Hara in an on-line reference book called The Literary Encyclopedia. In it, he says that the post-modernist novelists William Gaddis and Joseph McElroy owe something to O'Hara for their treatment of American business conduct. O'Hara, no doubt, would disdain post-modernism as he disdained much academic work. But this late tribute, if pursued, could finally elevate From the Terrace to the esteem O'Hara always wanted for it (and I assume he had this novel in mind when he thought he was a Nobel Prize candidate).

It's possible to say at least that O'Hara focuses as much on business as Gaddis and McElroy do, and that Gaddis's use of dialog relies on techniques pioneered by O'Hara in From the Terrace (page after page where the speaker is barely identified).

It would probably take a formal study to make this case completely. But anything that returns readers to this late favourite of O'Hara's ought to be very welcome.

At RISD

2009-11-16T19:57:00.004-05:00

Remembering Richard Merkin

Artist and RISD professor Richard Merkin in 1976.

This just in from the Rhode Island School of Design

Author Tom Wolfe and other luminaries are expected to attend a celebration honoring Richard Merkin, the longtime RISD professor, New Yorker contributor and bespoke fashion icon who died Sept. 5 at his home in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y. The event, which will include an afternoon program of toasts, testimonials and film screenings at RISD followed by dinner at the Providence Art Club, will take place Saturday, December 5.

Known as much for his style sense as he was for his stylish drawings and illustrations, Merkin cultivated a persona that combined elements of the Edwardian dandy, the bourgeois-defying artist-bohemian and the Jazz Age hipster. It was a look Merkin himself neatly summed up in a 1967 interview, telling a reporter "My sartorial aspirations lie somewhere between the Duke of Windsor and the Duke of Ellington."

According to RISD, the festivities will begin at noon with a screening of two of Merkin's favorite films — the Marx Brothers comedy "Horsefeathers" and the Todd Browning creep-out classic "Freaks" — at the RISD Tap Room (55 Angell St.). At 4 p.m., it's on to the Chace Center auditorium for toasts, testimonials and recollections, followed by dinner ($50 per person) at 8 p.m. at the Art Club.

Needless to say, attendees are urged to wear "snappy clothing."

Bill Van Siclen

CHECK OUT NEW POSTS ...

2009-10-30T00:32:00.001-04:00

AT THE JOHN O'HARA WEBSITE ---> www.OHara Society.blogspot.com.

Richard

@philabooks|booksellers philadelphia+washington | www.philabooks.webs.com

John O'Hara Society|Philadelphia | www.OHaraSociety.blogspot.com

25 October 1957

2009-10-29T22:48:00.005-04:00

Oct2009 Filed under: MOVIE NEWS, NEWS OF THE DAY

On this day in 1957, COLUMBIA PICTURES released PAL JOEY. Directed by GEORGE SIDNEY from the novel by JOHN O'HARA, this story of a charming cad and his hectic love life is a classic Hollywood musical. Included in the cast are FRANK SINATRA, KIM NOVAK, RITA HAYWORTH, BARBARA NICHOLS and BOBBY SHERWOOD. The terrific score includes such standards as THERE'S A SMALL HOTEL and BEWITCHED, BOTHERED AND

Richard Rabicoff Reports:

2009-10-29T22:48:00.004-04:00

O'Hara Sighting: The Atlantic

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 8:38 AM

Now I know why I love Mad Men. An article by Benjamin Schwartz in the November Atlantic, 'Mad About Mad Men' (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200911/schwarz-mad-men) offers an expansive critique of the show, mixing praise and potshots for various characters and scenes. So many of the kudos for the show--precision of period details, precision of the dialogue--are redolent of O"Hara that you keep expecting JOH to crop up, amid the usual suspects of Cheever, Yates, et al.

And toward the end, the miracle occurs:

"Today the megamovie is America's most accomplished and vital mass entertainment, so it's fitting that Mad Men, which is the most quintessentially American megamovie made to date, explores a peculiarly American theme and exploits a peculiarly American asset. Leave it to a show that famously employs an unusually high number of women writers to capture—more vividly than anything I've encountered save Norman Mailer's short story "The Language of Men" and, obliquely, John O'Hara's "Graven Image" — the unrelenting, low-level competition and consequent posing, the miscues and jarringness, the monotonous lack of intimacy that characterize a good deal of the conversation among middle-class American males. And leave it to television to enshrine correct Americanese."

Now we just need a "megamovie" version of, what? From the Terrace? to show people the original gospel.

2009-10-01T23:31:00.000-04:00

Pal Matt's Papers Go to Harry Ransom Center

AUSTIN, Texas — A collection of correspondence from the estate of Matthew Bruccoli (1931-2008), a professor, researcher and editor known for his lifelong interest in and scholarship on F. Scott Fitzgerald, has been donated to the Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin. The collection was a gift from Bruccoli's widow, Arlyn Bruccoli.

Bruccoli taught at the University of Virginia, Ohio State University and, for the majority of his career, the University of South Carolina. He wrote more than 50 books of literary biography and criticism about Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway alone, while also publishing widely on such authors as John O'Hara, Thomas Wolfe, Raymond Chandler and Joseph Heller.

Bruccoli edited numerous works of literature and letters, including those of his former professor, Vladimir Nabokov. Beginning in 1978 and working with Richard Layman and C. E. Frazer Clark Jr., Bruccoli helped produce the "Dictionary of Literary Biography" (DLB), a definitive literary encyclopedia consisting of nearly 400 volumes to date.

As a teenager, Bruccoli's interest in Fitzgerald was piqued one afternoon while driving in the backseat of his parents' car when he heard the radio broadcast of Fitzgerald's short story "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz." His initially thwarted attempt to find any of Fitzgerald's books in his high school library only deepened his quest. That he finally located a copy of "The Great Gatsby" a week later, he has said, "ruined" his life, for he has been "reading the book ever since."

Most of the collection materials concern Bruccoli's work on the DLB and his research and writing on Fitzgerald and Hemingway.

There are several hundred pages of corrected proofs and correspondence related to writers' biographical entries for DLB. Writers represented in the collection include Eric Ambler, Stanley Burnshaw, John Cheever, Umberto Eco, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Alan Furst, David Hare, Seamus Heaney, Richard S. Kennedy, William Kennedy, Doris Lessing, Norman Mailer, David Mamet, Bernard Malamud, Henry Miller, Toni Morrison, Iris Murdoch, Tim O'Brien, Harold Pinter, Salman Rushdie, William Styron, Tom Wolfe and Richard Yates, among others.

There are two folders of John Updike materials, which include photos, Bruccoli's correspondence with Updike, a typescript of an introduction on Nabokov that is heavily corrected in Updike's hand, and proofs and correspondence related to Updike's DLB entry.

The collection includes Fitzgerald ephemera and letters from various Fitzgerald and Hemingway family members, including Scottie Fitzgerald Lanahan (Fitzgerald's daughter), Sunny Miller (Hemingway's sister) and Mary Hemingway (Hemingway's fourth wife).

There are letters to Jerry Weingart from Scottie Fitzgerald Lanahan in which she suggests Weingart speak with Edmund Wilson and Judge John Briggs about her father, about whom Weingart was writing. A postcard from Lanaham mentions that Compton Mackenzie's book "Sinister Street" influenced Fitzgerald when he was writing "This Side of Paradise."

Bruccoli corresponded with various writers during his research for his book of Fitzgerald's correspondence, "Notebooks," and there are letters from S. J. Perelman, P. G. Wodehose, Glenway Wescott (to Lanahan), Archibald MacLeish, Allen Tate and Thornton Wilder, all regarding Fitzgerald.

The collection also includes letters related to Bruccoli's work on Hemingway, including correspondence from Alvah Bessie, Nathaniel Benchley, Hadley [Hemingway] Mowrer and Lillian Ross.

The correspondence in the Bruccoli collection dates from 1968 to 2006, with the greatest concentration from the mid-1970s to the 1980s.

The materials will be accessible once organized and housed.

High-resolution press images of a selection of the new materials are available.

For more information, contact: Alicia Dietrich, Harry Huntt Ransom Humanities Research Center, 512-232-3667; Jennifer Tisdale, Harry Huntt Ransom Humanities Research Center, 512-471-8949.

Contact us at JohnOHaraSoc@yahoo.com. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2009 Writers Clearinghouse, Est. 1976 @ Fabyan, Connecticut.

Welcome!

2009-09-20T19:32:00.000-04:00

Welcome Old -- and New Members! See You at Facebook.com!

Richard Merkin RIP: O'Hara Acolyte

2009-09-10T19:25:00.003-04:00

All Boutonniere-ed Up

By Richard Carreno
Junto Staff Writer
There were two sides to Richard Merkin, artist, writer, bon vivant, flaneur, raconteur, bull-shitter, who died Saturday, at 71, in New York of a heart attack. There was the Providence, Rhode Island, Merkin. There was the New York Merkin. There were probably other 'sides' to Merkin that I didn't know. But the list I mention, based on the I Merkin I knew in Providence and Boston, seems enough for one life.

It was a life that he shared generously with those, like me, who needed guidance in men's fashion -- oh yeah, Merkin was a toff, too -- and a glib, cheeky quote for an upcoming newspaper story.

The Merkin I knew -- mostly in the 70s and 80s -- was a teacher, as well. (He was a graduate and a long-time instructor at the Rhode Island School of Design).

His presence in Providence as a man-about-town was legendary. I don't think anyone else in Prov at that time was wearing a bowler as everyday hatwear. And Savile Row bespoke suits. And Lobb shoes. The bowler, from Lock, not surprisingly. Or anyone who sucked up as many fancy-Dan cigs (Turkish tabac, I suppose) from a silver case. We used to meet for lunch, drinks. He'd show me around the galleries near Brown. Hey, I was getting an education.

That was the New England Merkin. Image-wise, an Amtrak ride away in New York, I suppose he cut a similar swath, with his favourite croc shoes and boutonniere. But that was the West Side Merkin I didn't know -- the writer for GQ, a pornography boffin, and, in later years, a cover artist for The New Yorker. (How could this immaculate man, seriously, be an artist? Where was the paint under the fingernails? Merkin's nails were always buffed).

There was yet another Merkin. He was also a man of letters. His GQ column was named 'Sense of Style' -- a direct steal from George Frazier's old col in Esquire. He was one of the acolytes of Charlie Davidson -- he of The Andover Shop in Cambridge -- as was Chris Lydon and, to a much lesser degree, myself, as well. We were all sorta Frazier manque, especially after George died -- what was it? -- in 1971.

Still, there was the Merkin-Frazier controversy. It was probably even reported in The Boston Globe. That would be, of course, the old Boston Globe. The Globe that Frazier used to write for. Frazier thought it correct to wear a pocket hankerchief and a boutonniere at the same time. Merkin thought that was painting the lilly. High dungeon, that stuff.

For all of us, the big cheese was John O'Hara. From O'Hara, all flowed. And, yes, O'Hara sided with Merkin regarding the pocket square/boutonniere dust-up. I think Charlie, ever the fiercest Frazier-ite, even agreed with that.

(For detailed obituary, go to www.Junto.blogspot.com).

An O'Hara Showcase

2009-09-09T02:26:00.001-04:00

Private Collections

2009-08-30T14:36:00.001-04:00

Richard Carreno John O'Hara Collection

General Titles
An Artist is His Own Fault, LN/LN 1977 FIRST $39.99

And Other Stories, G/G FIRST Inscription, embossed, Previous owner's signature $4.99
_____, VG/VG FIRST Bookplate Previous owner's signature $24.99

Appointment in Samarra, VG/NW Paper 1985 Brit edition $4.99
_____, LN/NW 2003 Vintage edition TBP
_____, LN/LN 1994 Modern Library edition TBP
_____, VG/G 1994 Modern Library edition $4.99
_____, VG/NW Yellowing Undated WW II wartime edition Bookplate TBP
_____, LN/LN Facsimile 1934 First edition 1961 FIRST TBP. (2 copies).
_____, G/NW Ex Libris Bookplate1935 4th edition TBP.
_____, G/NW Bookplate 1935 ?? edition TBP
_____, G/NW Torn upper spine 1935 TBP
_____, VG/G Bookplate 1953 Modern edition TBP
_____, G/NW Bookplate 1935 5th edition TBP
_____, (Rendez-Vous a Samarra), LN/NW Paper En francais 2005 French edition $14.99

Assembly, VG/NW Bookplate FIRST 1962 Cresset Brit edition TBP
_____, G/NW FIRST Embossed Previous owner's sig Bookplate TBP

Big Laugh, The, VG/VG 1962 FIRST Cresset Brit edition In protective plastic wrap $19.99
_____, VG/VG Some tears at wrapper spine Bookplate FIRST $24.99
_____, VG/NW Paper Bookplate 1997 FIRST Ecco edition $9.99

BUtterfield 8, G/NW Paper 1961 Brit Penguin edition $1.99
_____, LN/NW Paper 1999 Prion Brit edition, $7.99 (2 copies).
_____, VG/NW 1951 Shakespeare House edition TBP
_____, G/NW Paper 1960 Brit Penguin edition $1.99
_____, LN/NW Paper 2003 Modern Library edition $9.99
_____, VG/VG Undated Modern Library edition $11.99
_____, G/NW Paper 1961 Brit Penguin edition $1.99

Cape Cod Lighter, VG/G 1962 5th edition $2.99
_____, VG/G 1962 3rd Printing $2.99

Collected Stories of John O'Hara,VG/NW Paper $5.99.
_____, VG/NW Paper Bookplate1984 FIRST Brit edition $9.99
_____, LN/LN 1984 FIRST TBP.
_____, LN/NW Paper 1984 FIRST TBP.
_____, VG/NW 1984 FIRST TBP

Doctor's Son, The, VG/NW Paper Undated Avon edition TBP

Elizabeth Appleton, VG/G 1963 Second Printing TBP.
_____, G/NW Ex Libris Library binding 1963 FIRST Brit edition $2.99.
_____, VG/NW 1963 FIRST Cresset Brit edition TBP

Ewings, The, VG/VG Bookplate 1972 FIRST Brit edition $14.99

Farmer's Hotel ,The, 1951 FIRST TBP
_____, G/NW 1951 FIRST TBP
_____, VG/G Bookplate 1951 FIRST TBP

Family Party, VG/G Bookplate In plastic protective wrap Prev owner's sig 1956 FIRST $39,99

Files on Parade, G/NW Paper Brittle, yellowing FIRST 1943 Avon Modern Monthly TBP

Forty Nine Stories LN/NW 1962 Modern Library FIRST TBP

From the Terrace, G/VG Bookplate In plastic protective wrap Previous owner's sig 1958 FIRST $19.99
_____, VG/VG Bookplate In plastic protective wrap 1958 FIRST $29.99
_____, LN/NW Paper Bookplate 2nd edition $14.99

Good Samaritan & Other Stories, VG/G 1974 FIRST $29.99

Great Short Stories of John O'Hara, G/NW Paper 1956 Bantam edition $0.99
_____, VG/NW Paper 1967 Canadian edition $0.99

Hat on the Bed, The, G/NW Bookplate 1963 FIRST TBP

Hellbox, VG/NW Bookplate 1947 2nd edition Previous owner's sig $9.99.
_____, VG/VG Bookplate In plastic protective wrap 1947 2nd edition $14.99
_____, VG/VG Bookplate Some chipping at wrapper spine FIRST In plastic protective wrap $39.99

Here's O'Hara, VG/NW 1946 reprint Bookplate TBP
_____, G/NW FIRST Ex Libris Library bound Bookplate TBP
_____, G/NW FIRST Torn, damaged spine Prev owner's sig Bookplate Artifact TBP

Hope of Heaven, VG/NW Paper 1985 C+G edition TBP

Horse Knows the Way, VG/NW Bookplate 1964 FIRST $9.99
_____, VG/G 1964 FIRST $19.99
_____, LN/LN FIRST $49.99
_____, LN/LN FIRST Bookplate $34.99

Instrument, The, VG/VG Book Club 1967 $2.99

John O'Hara's Hollywood, LN/NW Paper FIRST Bookplated edited by Bruccoli $9.99

Lockwood Concern, G/VG Ex Libris Library markings Bookplate FIRST 1965 $9.99
_____, LN/LN Bookplate 1965 Brit Club Club edition $9.99
_____, LN/LN 1967 FIRST Brit edition $24.99

Lovey Childs: A Philadelphian's Story, G/NW Ex-Libris 1969 $2.99
_____, G/NW Ex Libris 1969 FIRST TBP

My Turn, G/NW Paper FIRST Signet edition 1967 $0.99.
_____, VG/NW Paper FIRST Signet 1967 edition $1.99

O'Hara Generation, G/NW 1969 edition $1.99
_____, VG/NW Paper $2.99
_____, VG/NW 1969 FIRST TBP

Ourselves to Know, VG/VG 1960 FIRST Brit edition $14.99
_____, VG/NW 1962 Brit edition $9.99
_____, VG/G FIRST Bookplate In plastic protective wrap Prev owner's sig $19.99

Pal Joey, N/NW Paper 1999 Prion edition TBP
_____, LN/LN 1952 Book Club edition TBP

Pipe Night, VG/NW 1945 5th WW II wartime edition $7.99
_____, G/NW Paper Canadian Popular Library edition $1.99
_____, VG/NW 1945 6th Wartime edition 6.99
_____, VG/G 1946 Forum FIRST TBP.
_____, VG/VG 1946 Forum FIRST TBP

Rage to Live, VG/VG1949 7th Printing, In plastic protective wrap $9.99
_____, G/NW FIRST Bookplate Prev owner's sig $9.99
_____, VG/NW Paper FIRST Reviewers' Selection series Rare 4.99
_____, Rage to Live,VG/NW 4th printing $4.99
_____, (Smania Di Vita), VG/NW Bookplate FIRST Italian edition Rare TBP

Sermons and Soda-Water, G/VG Ex Libris FIRST Brit edition TBP
_____,VG/NW Paper 1986 Carroll & Graf edition TBP
_____, VG/NW Hardback 1960 Third edition 3 vol boxed set $24.99.
_____, VG/NW Paper FIRST Carroll & Graf edition1986 TBP

Sweet and Sour, LN/LN Bookplate in plastic protective wrap 1954 FIRST $29.99
_____, LN/NW Bookplate 1954 FIRST TBP

Ten North Frederick, $1.99,G/NW Paper 1962 Brit Panther edition
_____, VG/NW, 3rd Printing 1955 TBP

Three of the Best: Pal Joey, Hope of Heaven, Sermons and Soda Water VG/NW Paper 1986 Brit edition TBP

Time Element and Other Stories, LN/LN 1972 FIRST $24.99

Two by O'Hara, LN/LN 1979 FIRST TBP

Waiting for Winter, VG/VG Bookplate Brit edition $9.99
_____, G/NW Broken spine Ex libris Library markings Bookplate FIRST $2.99

Special Editions
Americans in London, Brian N. Morton, BN/NW Paper re O'Hara 1986 FIRST $14.99

American Short Story, The: A Treasury of the Memorable and Familiar, edited by Thomas Parkes (includes Imagine Kissing Pete), LN/LN, FIRST New York: Galahad Books 1994 $9.99

At Random: The Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf, re O'Hara citations LN/VG Bookplate embossed stamp, 1977 FIRST TBP

At Random: Books and Bookpeople from Random House, LN/NW Paper, includes 'Appointment with O'Hara,' 1994 FIRST $9.99

Encyclopedia of American Humor, edited by Bennet Cerf, includes O'Hara, et al, G/G Ex Libris $0.99

Bedside Tales, Introduction by Peter Arno, VGNW 1945 FIRST TBP

Fifty Great Short Stories, A/NW Paper (Includes O'Hara's 'Graven Image') 1959 Bantam edition 0.99

For Men Only, edited by James M. Cain, G/NW, includes O'Hara, et al, 1944 2nd $0.99

Life of John O'Hara, Frank MacShane, VG/VG 1980 Brit edition TBP.
_____, VG/VG Bookplate, review attached to inside cover, to tear to fron wrapper, 1980 FIRST TBP.

John O'Hara, Robert Emmet Long, N/N 1983 FIRST $5.99. (Three texts available)

John O'Hara: A Checklist, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli, BN/BN 1972 FIRST signed by editor TBP
_____, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli, VG/VG 1972 FIRST $49.99

John O'Hara Compendium, edited by Richard Carreno, BN/NW Paper $9.99

John O'Hara: A Descriptive Bibliography, LN/NW 1978 FIRST $59.99

John O'Hara, Sheldon Norman Grebstein, G/NW Paper 1966 FIRST $3.99

John O'Hara, Charles Child Walcutt, VG/NW Ex Libris Library binding 1969 FIRST TBP
_____, VG/VG FIRST $4.99
_____, LN/LN $5.99

John O'Hara Journal, LN/NW Paper Bookplate, Vol. 1, Number 1 Winter 1979-80 TBP.
John O'Hara Journal, LN/NW Paper Bookplate, Vo. 4, Number 1 Spring-Summer 1981 TBP.

Journalism, Writing, and American Literature, Ronald Weber, VG/NW Paper Bookplate unpaginated (15pp?) 1987 FIRST TBP

O'Hara: A Biography of John O'Hara, Finis Farr, LN/LN 1974 FIRST Brit edition TBP
_____, Finis Farr LN/VG 1973 FIRST TBP

O'Hara Concern: A Biography of John O'Hara, Matthew J. Bruccoli, VG/VG Bookplate 1975 FIRST signed by author TBP

On Native Grounds, Alfred Kazin, including 'The Revival of Naturalism' re O'Hara, etc., G/G Bookplate, embossed stamp, notes 1942 FIRST TBP.

Pleasure for Reading, edited by Bennett Cerf, includes O'Hara's 'Bread Alone,' VG/G Slight tear to wrapper 1957 FIRST TBP.

Reader's Digest Condensed Books, G/G Includes 'A Family Party,' 1957 FIRST $0.99.

Saturday Evening Post Stories, The, re O'Hara LN/NW 1960 FIRST TBP

Selected Letters of John O'Hara, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli, LN/VG 1978 FIRST TBP

Short Stories from The New Yorker, LN/NW 1940 FIRST TBP
_____, G/NW 1951 Brit FIRST TBP
_____, G/NW Paper Wrinkling by water damage, 1966 2nd $1.99

Short Stories from The New Yorker: 1940 to 1950, G/NW Paper Wrinkling by water damage, 1996 2nd $1.99

Wonderful Town: New York Stories from The New Yorker, BN/BN Bookplate 2000 FIRST TBP

World of the Short Story: A 20th Century Collection, edited by Clifton Fadiman, LN/VG Bookplate 1986 FIRST TBP.

Private Collections

2009-08-29T20:01:00.002-04:00

James MacDonald's
John O'Hara Collection

Appointment in Samarra Modern Library
Butterfield 8    Harcourt, Brace first
Hope of Heaven (with stories from The Doctor's Son and Files on Parade)      British paperback
Pal Joey    British paperback
Pipe Night    British paperback
Hellbox British paperback
A Rage To Live (2)    British hardback first and Modern Library
The Farmers Hotel Bantam paperback
Sweet and Sour    British paperback
Ten North Frederick    British hardback first
A Family Party    Bantam paperback
From the Terrace (2) Random House first and British hardback first
Ourselves To Know British hardback first
Assembly    Random House first
Sermons and Soda-Water    Random House first
Five Plays British hardback
The Cape Cod Lighter    British paperback
The Big Laugh    Random House first
Forty-nine Stories    Modern Library
Elizabeth Appleton British hardback first
The Hat on the Bed British hardback
The Horse Knows the Way British paperback
The Lockwood Concern    Random House first
Waiting For Winter British hardback
The Instrument                          British hardback first
And Other Stories    Random House first
The Ewings    British hardback first
The Time Element Random House first
Good Samaritan British hardback first
Collected Stories    Random House first
Two By O'Hara      First
An Artist is His Own Fault      First
Selected Letters                           First

O'Hara Finis Farr
The O'Hara Concern      Matthew Brucolli
The Life of John O'Hara                 Frank MacShane
The Art of Burning Bridges             Geoffrey Wolff

Private Collections

2009-08-27T22:32:00.000-04:00

David Morowitz O'Hara Collection

A PERSONAL ASSEMBLAGE OF JOHN O’HARA

NOVELS
APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA
A RAGE TO LIVE
THE BIG LAUGH
BUTTERFIELD 8
THE EWINGS
THE FARMER'S HOTEL
FROM THE TERRACE
THE GOOD SAMARITAN
HOPE OF HEAVEN
THE INSTRUMENT
THE LOCKWOOD CONCERN
LOVEY CHILDS
OURSELVES TO KNOW
PAL JOEY
PIPE NIGHT
TEN NORTH FREDERICK
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
ALL THE GIRLS HE WANTED
AND OTHER STORIES
ASSEMBLY
THE CAPE COD LIGHTER
THE DOCTOR'S SON, AND OTHER STORIES
FILES ON PARADE
THE GOOD SAMARITAN AND OTHER STORIES
HELLBOX
HERE’S O’HARA
THE HAT ON THE BED
THE HORSE KNOWS THE WAY
PIPE NIGHT
SERMONS AND SODAWATER (3 NOVELLAS)
THE TIME ELEMENT, AND OTHER STORIES
WAITING FOR WINTER

ESSAYS
MY TURN
SWEET AND SOUR
ANTHOLOGIES
COLLECTED SHORT STORIES-FRANK McSHANE
GIBBSVILLE, PA-THE CLASSIC STORIES MATTHEW BRUCCOLI
SELECTED SHORT STORIES OF JOHN O'HARA (MODERN LIBRARY)
"HERE'S O'HARA"
THREE PLAYS

BIOGRAPHIES-LETTERS, ETC.
FINIS FARR: “O'HARA-A BIOGRAPHY”
FRANK MCSHANE: “THE LIFE OF JOHN O'HARA”
MATTHEW BRUCCOLI: “THE LETTERS OF JOHN O'HARA”
GEOFFREY WOLFF: "THE ART OF BURNING BRIDGES"
MATTHEW BRUCCOLI: "THE O'HARA CONCERN"
A PACH BROS. PORTRAIT OF J. O'H.

(PURCHASED 2007 FROM LIONHEART AUTOGRAPHS & LETTERS)

A LETTER FROM WYLIE O'HARA DOUGHTY

ASSORTED VOLUMES OF “THE JOURNAL OF JOHN O’HARA STUDIES”

Newest Member!

2009-08-24T12:56:00.002-04:00

New Pal Carol Ritter Wright

I have been reading and collecting O'Hara for 40 years, have made 
several literary pilgrimages to Pottsville, and continue to marvel at 
the man's absolute mastery of speech and dialogue.

I was a working newspaper reporter, editor, and columnist for 43 years, 
and have recently begun writing short stories."The Cape Cod Lighter" 
in paperback was my first O'Hara book, and it hooked me immediately, so 
I started searching out and buying and devouring his other works.

I wish I lived closer to Pottsville so I could take part in all of the 
interesting O'Hara activities that are going on there now.When I 
discovered this author,he was persona non grata in his hometown, and 
I'm delighted to see that the community has finally recognized his 
talent and his amazing contribution to American letters.

Carol Ritter Wright
(From a suburb of Rochester, New York)

2009-08-23T15:54:00.002-04:00

Let's See Your O'Hara Books!

Philadelphia l August 2009

Dear Colleagues -->
If you're a collector of the works of John O'Hara, you might want to list your holdings at the John O'Hara Society website.

Whether you are simply a collector and/or dealer, thinking about purchases or sales, listing your titles and other O'Hara materials will surely help in rounding out your O'Haraia, or make it possible for someone else to do so.

How you want to list your collection is up to you. If you're selling, establishing condition, the extent of detail, the volume of listings, and price is your choice. If you're a collector who simply wants to permanently record your collection and make its existence known to the public, that's OK, too.

For all involved, there will be no better way or venue to announce your want lists -- and speak directly to more than 100 persons who are established O'Hara fans.

Send your lists via an in-text e-mail (no attachments, please) to: JohnOHaraSociety@yahoo.com. Of course, this a FREE service..

Yours,
Richard

Contact us at JohnOHaraSociety@yahoo.com, or by telephone at +(00)12672531086. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2009 Writers Clearinghouse.

New O'Hara Book!

2009-08-17T10:38:00.001-04:00

Swiss Publisher Backs O'Hara Bio/Analysis

Book synopsis

The writer John O'Hara (1905-1970) came from Pottsville in Pennsylvania. He put his home town and the surrounding vicinity under a microscope to produce an account of 'The Anthracite Region' that rivals Edith Wharton's descriptions of New York and Sinclair Lewis's anatomy of Sauk Centre. With the discerning eye of a local resident, O'Hara recreated this coal-rich region and its people so well that his novelettes, novellas, novels, plays and short stories give a true record of his 'Pennsylvania Protectorate' in the latter part of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century.
In order to reveal the ethnographical, geographical and historical authenticity of the O'Hara Canon, this book examines his writings in the context of Pottsville and the borough of Tamaqua, as well as the nearby towns and villages. The author also investigates both O'Hara's genteel upbringing and his gangster stratum. The book explores the many dimensions of O'Hara's life from the time of his birth until his escape to New York City in 1928. New sources such as unpublished letters and interviews with O'Hara's family, friends and enemies provide important insights into O'Hara, as well as into Pottsville and the surrounding region.

Contents

Contents: O'Hara in the Spawning Grounds of Pennsylvania - O'Hara's Genteel Upper Class in 'The Anthracite Region' - O'Hara's Gangster Stratum in 'Lantenengo County' - O'Hara: The Gentleman, Ethnographer, Geographer and Social Historian - Aftermath.

About the author(s)/editor(s)

The Author: Pamela C. Mac Arthur holds a Master's degree in American and Canadian History from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. After completing a thesis entitled 'John O'Hara: A Biographical Study', she was awarded her D.Phil. in 1999 by the School of English and American Studies at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom.

Post Script

We're looking for more details -- and a review! If you can provide either, please forward immediately!

An O'Hara on O'Hara

2009-08-13T22:24:00.002-04:00

On 13 August 2009, Marty O'Hara writes:

My name is Martin E. O'Hara III and John was was my great uncle. My father (also Martin aka Big Mart or pop-pop depending upon your perspective) and my grandfather (the original Martin aka know as pop-pop) would tell me stories about John. As a child/young man I can remember sitting with my grandfather on his porch (on Norwegian street) and he would tell me stories mostly about their childhood adventures.    

Recently my father has bestowed upon me all of John's books, short stories, newspaper articles, etc. This new possession has re-kindled my long forgotten interest in him (which is how I found your [John O'Hara Society] blog)....

I never knew the man [John O'Hara] personally,but from all of the time I spent in Pottsville and the time I spent with my grandfatherI can see (and feel) his experiences vividly through his writing.

I am writing to you today to say that I appreciate you keeping his memory alive and well. I understand that most of the memories he left behind overshadow his work, and it is refreshing to see a different POV.

Regards,
Marty O'Hara

Free Membership Freebie on the Way!

2009-08-08T18:11:00.001-04:00

Pal Joey DVD -- Free!
 
Thanks to Pal Joey winner Robert Knott we have a DVD available of the film version (with Frank Sinatra) of Pal Joey. If you're a paid-up member of the John O'Hara Society, a FREE copy of the DVD is on the way.
 
Any Society news? Send for posting!
 
Richard

O'Hara....

2009-08-03T20:05:00.002-04:00

Misses a Few Cylinders....

I have verified that the original manuscript of Appointment in Samarra states that Al Grecco was driving a V-61 Cadillac coach. Thanks to Sandra Stelts, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at Penn State, and thanks to our son George Saliba for his research in finding it was a V-16 (16 cylinders). I guess the author got it wrong and no one caught it.
Robert Saliba
Morristown, New Jersey

At the New Yorker Building...

2009-07-24T18:28:00.004-04:00

Photo: Writers Clearinghouse

... O'Hara Gets No Respect
Commemorative plaque honouring The New Yorker as long-time tenant of the buildng at 28 West 44th Street. Interesting that, with all due respect, Geffrey Hellman -- by all lights a lesser writer than John O'Hara -- gets mentioned. But no O'Hara!

O'Hara Shelf

2009-07-13T22:07:00.003-04:00

Washington Bookshop Highlights O'Hara

Washington
The Capitol Hill Bookshop, just behind the Capitol near Eastern Market, has a shelf, well, a pile devoted to O'Hara. Pretty much a first for the author in this day and age. The texts were nothing special. But well priced. Bookshop gets an all-round A.
--RDC

Contact us at John.OHara.Society@comcast.net, or by telephone at +(00)12672531086. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2009 Writers Clearinghouse.

Ringing O'Hara

2009-07-13T13:08:00.004-04:00

O'Haras in Pottsville Directory

Thanks to Rick Prelinger, of Prelinger Archives, San Francisco, for sending these images! Rick writes: 'After looking at the Soiciety's blog I thought I'd send scans of copy of the 1916 Pottsville telephone directory showing John O'Hara's father listed at 606 Mahantongo. It isn't of the greatest historical significance, but it's fun. Hope to get back to Pottsville one of these days and explore further. It's been awhile.'

Again, many thanks, Rick! I've put you on the e-mail list.

Richard.

Free Books

2009-06-29T18:19:00.004-04:00

Promotion Ends
Sorry, but this promotion, because of demand, has already terminated. No more free books available. (For cheapest O'Hara books, go to http://www.philabooks.webs.com/). Hope to post your free books Monday. That's NOT a holiday, right? Anyway, look out for more cooperative promotions between the Society and @philabooksbooksellers. Happy Fourth of July!

Get a Free O'Hara Book

@philabooksbooksellers is offering subscribed members of The John O'Hara a free book authored by John O'Hara. These are second-hand books, and most are paperbacks. Condition varies. Offer applies as long as supplies last. Send a e-mail to philabooks@comcast.net, noting your membership and your mailing instructions. Offer expires 1 August 2009.

Contact us at John.OHara.Society@comcast.net, or by telephone at +(00)12672531086. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2009 Writers Clearinghouse.

Worldwide View

2009-06-27T13:40:00.005-04:00

International Interest

in Society, Study Says

During the past year, this website of the John O'Hara Society has received visitors from 39 countries, with the United States and the United Kingdom topping the list as the locales producing the most hits.

This is some of the information StatCounter, our statistical source for the website and its companion site, http://www.junto.blogspot.com/, shows.

In descending order, the following are some of the countries represented in the data:

Canada, Germany, Ireland, France, Spain, Japan, Thailand, Finland, Denmark, China, and Italy.

How did visitors come to the site? According to the data, the most common 'keywords,' directing interested parties were, in the following order:

'o'hara novels,' 'john o'hara society,' 'john o'hara,' 'john o'hara novels,' 'john o'hara club,' 'john o'hara blog,' 'dunhill gold plated lighter,' 'wylie o'hara,' 'john o'hara philadelphia,' 'writers clearinghouse press,' 'john o'hara fan club,' 'john o'hara pal joey,' @philabooks,' and the like.

Some of the more interesting hits included the following keywords:

'mere sex,' 'john o'hara still living,' 'my father came home at four o'clock one morning in the fall of 1918, and plumped down on a couch in the john' ohara,' 'date to love author john o'hara,' 'john o'hara jew,' 'erloff,' and the like. (Some others were pretty raunchy).

If you'd like more details about the continuing survey and how it's compiled, just let me know.

--- RDC

Writer's Query

2009-06-25T17:36:00.003-04:00

Did O'Hara Get it Wrong?

In the Companion Guide project I am working on, I think I noticed two mistakes in Appointment in Samarra, and I was wondering if you had the time whether you could check things out in your first edition.

Early on Al Grecco picks up Julian driving home from the Country Club after the drink throwing incident. The books states that Al Grecco is driving a V-61 Cadillac Coach. I went online, and there is no V-61 Cadillac Coach. There is, however, a V-16 Cadillac Coach.

In the scene where Julian wakes up the next day with a hangover, there's a reference to his Kappa Beta Phi Key. There is no Kappa Beta Phi. Instead there is of course Phi Beta Kappa.

I have an email in to Penn State. They promised me an answer. I want to look at the original manuscript to see what was written down. Was this the error of the author or the publisher.

All the more reason for the pilgrimmage to Penn State. Any help you can give me would be appreciated.

--Robert Saliba

The Big Question?

2009-06-22T17:25:00.002-04:00

Left to Right, James Checket, Robert Saliba, Robert Knott, Richard Carreno in front of old O'Hara house, 'Linebrook.'

Photo: Writers Clearinghouse

Why Did O'Hara Move to Princeton?

That was the big question over lunch at the Nassau Inn.

Lots of reasons:

Near Philly and Pottsville.

It wasn't New Haven

It embodied Wall Street money

Ivy League School

Firzgerald?

WASP population

Thanks to Robert Saliba, we also get the official view from the late and pal Matt Bruccoli:

'...Belle wanted to get John out of New York where there were too many distractions and to many bars. He concurred, admitting that it was time for him to make "21" a restaurant and not a career. When Wylie showed a mild asthma condition, the O'Haras began town hunting. Saratoga Springs, where Frank Sullivan lived, was considered, but was rejected because the winters were harsh and it was a long way from the reference sources O'Hara needed. No serious consideration was given to Potttsville. He wanted a college town for the library facilities and for the people; and Princeton won out over New Haven...He liked Princeton's location between Philadelphia and New York and had the theory that the social structure of a college town is set by the living standard of the full professors, This is not the case in Princeton. As John O'Hara certainly knew, Princeton is full of big money, and its social structure is more influenced by Wall Street than by Prospect Street." -- Bruccoli, Matthew J., The O'Hara Concern, p 199.

20 June 2009

2009-06-22T16:57:00.002-04:00

Society Visits O'Hara's Princeton

After lunch at the Nassau Inn, a favourite O'Hara dining spot, Society pals toured the 'Master's Princeton.' Included were the Princeton Chapel, Trinity Church, the Nassau Club, Linebrook, and O'Hara's gravesite in the Princeton Cemetery. After almost four hours, we wound up having tea at the cafe in the new town Library building across from the cemetery. Among our group were Robert and Jenny Saliba, James and Sally Checket, Robert Knott, Carol Gramer, Joan Kane, and Richard Carreno.

Next trip? O'Hara's study at Penn State University. Stay tuned for details!

Press Released

2009-06-12T20:01:00.005-04:00

From: Richard Carreno
Date: 12 June 2009
Re: PRESS ADVISORY (O'Hara Society Field Trip to Princeton, NJ)
Contact: 267.253.1086

When: 20 June 2009, 12:30 PM
Who: John O'Hara Society
Where: Nassau Inn

Society to Princeton Sites Related to Author

The John O'Hara Society, a worldwide group that honours and celebrates the life and work of John O'Hara, arguably America's greatest 20th century short-story writer, will meet Saturday, 20 June, in Princeton, NJ, for a field trip to sites related to the author's life and death.

O'Hara lived in Princeton for many years until his death in 1970.

The group, with its head office in Philadelphia, will meet at 12:30 PM for lunch at the Nassau Inn, Palmer Square, and leave from there for site visits to:

* Princeton Cemetery (O'Hara's gravesite)
* 18 College Road West (his first house in Princeton)
* Princeton University Chapel (site of O'Hara's funeral service)
* Princeton Trinity Church (site of funeral of O'Hara's second wife, Belle)
* Linebrook (O'Hara's house)
* Nassau Club (his club in town)
* Princeton Y.M.C.A. (attended)

The lunch is reserved for CURRENT Society members only. The tour is open to all. Just show up.

For more details about the outing and FREE Society membership, go OHaraSociety.blogspot.com. Or contact the group's membership secretary, Richard Carreno, on 2672531086.

END

Contact us at John.OHara.Society@comcast.net, or by telephone at +(00)12672531086. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2009 Writers Clearinghouse.

John O'Hara @ Facebook

2009-06-05T08:05:00.003-04:00

facebook

Dear Pals:

The following person recently invited you to be their friend on Facebook:

Writers Clearinghouse

Other people you may know on Facebook:

	Avery Rome The Philadelphia Inquirer		Christopher Lydon
	Justin Carreno Washington, DC		Lise Funderburg Philadelphia, PA
	Paula Goff Philadelphia, PA		Connie Langland Philadelphia, PA

Facebook is a great place to keep in touch with friends, post photos and videos, and create events. But first you need to join! Sign up today to create a profile and connect with the people you know.

Thanks,
The Facebook Team

Facebook is free and anyone can join.

To join Facebook, please follow the link below:

http://www.facebook.com/r.php?re=15ca966f4069d4f1974e1130b5bf3778&mid=930748G48d264d5G2eaa57G46

Judy Blume on Reading O'Hara

2009-06-05T01:06:00.002-04:00


JuAdy Blume on Reading John O'Hara Judy Blume remembers reading John O'Hara when she was young - a book the library wouldn't let her check out and that her mother forbid her to read. At the NCAC event with Toni Morrison and Fran Lebowitz. John O'Hara and censorship: Author Judy Blume discussing her reading O'Hara as a youth -- and what happened!

Provisional Itinerary

2009-06-04T19:58:00.007-04:00

June 20 Itinerary

Here's a provisional itinerary for our June 20 field trip to Princeton, New Jersey. It's in no particular order:

Princeton Cementary (John O'Hara gravesite).
18 College Road West (Rental before he moved to Linebrook).
Princeton Hospital (Where Belle died).
Princeton Trinity Church (Belle funeral).
Linebook, intersection of Province Line and Pretty Book roads.
Nassau Club.
Princeton Y.M.C.A.
Princeton University Chapel (O'Hara funeral).

If anyone has any other ideas, please note them here.

Also, if anyone who plans to attend who has a camcorder, please bring that too for a film of the event. For the website. YouTube?
--RDC
Contact us at John.OHara.Society@comcast.net, or by telephone at +(00)12672531086. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2009 Writers Clearinghouse.

Princeton Field Trip

2009-06-01T21:03:00.002-04:00

Set for June 20!
Our visit to John O'Hara sites has been scheduled for 12:30 PM Saturday, June 20, at the Nassau Inn, off Nassau Street, Princeton, New Jersey. (Check Google and MapQuest for details). We visit the house (hopefully), gravesite, and church, etc. (Refer to O'Hara Compendium.) Please suggest and advise. This is an OPEN event for one and all, paid or non-paid. Please RSVP to John.OHara.Society@comcast 15 June, please. 
From: Pal Carol Randolph Gramer, New York: Yankee Doodle Tap Room in the basement of the Nassau Inn is a great place for beer and burgers: pub chow is inexpensive but good, and the ambiance is historical and picturesque. And it is located right smack in the middle of Palmer Square.
From Richard: Thanks for the tip! See you there. Richard
 

Membership Update

2009-06-01T11:30:00.002-04:00

[The following is a copy of a universal blast via our Facebook.com membership page].

Welcome New Members!

In the past month, thanks to Facebook's Group page, we've recruited about a dozen new members. Welcome, pals!

I've tried to message each of you individually, but, to my dismay, this is AGAINST Facebook regs. So this universal blast is necessary. For these new pals, then, I recommend that they go to our website, www.OHaraSociety.blogspot.com, for Society news/updates and for membership details.

Basic membership is FREE. Premium memberships, which includes FREE DVDs, audios, publications, etc., is $25 per annum, payable via PayPal, etc. As always, don't hesitate to contact me directly at John.OHara.Society@comcast.net.

Just a bit of membership news from Blighty: Spoke to James MacDonald at length when I was in London last week. Recruiting efforts there are under way. As you may know, some of our most enthusiastic pals are Brits.

Also, no I haven't forgotten about our field trip to Princeton, New Jersey. I just need a bit of a breather before I can sort that one out.

Best wishes to all, Richard Carreno

Contact us at John.OHara.Society@comcast.net, or by telephone at +(00)1:267:253:1086. We're always looking for contributors. Join the conversation! © 2009 Writers Clearinghouse

Appointment at 75

2009-05-29T01:11:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Christine Goldbeck:
It's the 75th Anniversary for Celebrated Pottsville Native's Controversial Novel: For 75 years, Pottsville has also been known as "Gibbsville."
By Stephen J. Pytak

Staff Writer

spytak@republicanherald.com

Published: Monday, May 11, 2009 8:20 AM EDT

For 75 years, Pottsville has also been known as "Gibbsville."

Fans of novelist John O'Hara believe it will continue to carry that designation for generations to come.
"O'Hara's works are very much relevant today because they deal with the human condition, with relationships between men and women and individuals and society," said Shenandoah native Christine M. Goldbeck, author of "A Tribute to O'Hara and Other Stories," published in 2000.
"He's relevant because the same themes he talks about in the 1920s and '30s and '40s still occur. And I believe he will be read for centuries to come," said Mark T. Major, local historian and executive director of the Schuylkill County Visitors Bureau.
This is a watermark [sic] year for the celebrated Pottsville author, the 75th anniversary of the publication of his first novel, "Appointment in Samarra," in which his fictitious version of Pottsville was introduced. Local O'Hara fans can celebrate by visiting the life-size bronze statue of O'Hara on South Centre Street, checking out one of his classic books from a local library, or taking the John O'Hara walking tour of Pottsville. Pamphlets for the tour are available at the visitors bureau, 200 E. Arch St., Pottsville.
Meanwhile, the Schuylkill County Council for the Arts, Pottsville, is planning a John O'Hara weekend dinner theatre in early November, according to Sandra Coyle, the council's executive director.
O'Hara remains popular at the Pottsville Free Public Library, according to Denise Miller, circulation manager.
"He's no Danielle Steel, James Patterson or John Grisham. But who's to say they'll remain popular in 75 years?" Miller said Thursday.
In his career, O'Hara wrote 16 novels and 402 stories, according to the Web site of The John O'Hara Society.

There are 209 O'Hara books and multiple copies of 44 O'Hara titles in the Pottsville library's collection. Since 1998, the most popular O'Hara title with patrons has been "Appointment in Samarra," Miller said.
"Since 1998, when we started keeping computer records, it's been checked out 67 times," Miller said.
According to the Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 324, John O'Hara, published by Thomson-Gale in 2006,
"Appointment in Samarra" was published Aug. 16, 1934. The book, which chronicled the lives of the elite and affluent of Gibbsville, is also No. 22 on The Modern Library's 100 Best Novels.
Ione Geier, a Pottsville writer, has a hardcover first edition in her collection. It's her favorite of his novels.
"I identified with the places that he wrote about and when I was older the people that he wrote about," said Geier, who said she conducted the first two John O'Hara walking tours in Pottsville in 1978 and 1980.
It centers on the self-destruction of one of Gibbsville's more popular gentlemen, Julian English, and his struggle with relationships, community and self. Told from the viewpoints of several different characters,"Appointment in Samarra" is also about manners and depicts the way in which one must abide by certain rules in order to gain acceptance to maintain social standing, according to Goldbeck and  eNotes.com.
Gaining acceptance was something O'Hara had struggled with himself.
"John was aware of the social differences about which he would write as an adult. This had to do with the fact that the O'Hara family was Irish Catholic. Irish immigrants were not seen in the best of light. After all, it had not been very long since the so-called Molly Maguires were hanged for crimes against mine supervisors and operators," Goldbeck said on the Web site for the John O'Hara Society.
By writing about a place he called "Gibbsville," O'Hara was able to criticize Pottsville's social strata, said Vincent D. Balitas, Pottsville, a retired American literature professor. Balitas also started "The O'Hara Journal," a literary magazine published locally between 1978 and 1982.
"In Gibbsville, he depicted a small town and revealed the warts. He attacked the hypocrisy, the Babbitry, the arrogance of small-town nobodies. When it came out, 'Appointment in Samarra,' O'Hara was considered a traitor to Pottsville. For a small town to be told their bleeding citizens are essentially nobodies, it created problems. It created problems for him," Balitas said.
While O'Hara renamed streets, churches and office buildings in Pottsville in his novels, some of his early critics believed he was also writing about specific people.
When asked about that, Balitas said O'Hara would say "these are composites of people."
Major called "Appointment in Samarra," "a decent read," but said he wasn't sure if it was a completely accurate portrayal of the upper class in Pottsville at the time: "Can't comment on it. I didn't live in the 1920s that he lived in. But he probably did the best job that he could. You always use what you're familiar with when you write a story like that, your own experiences, your own memories."
Schuylkill County Commissioner Mantura M. Gallagher, an avid O'Hara fan, called it her favorite novel.
"I've read and re-read it countless times and each time I find something new," she said. "It's timeless. He was known for his exact depiction of the region's dialect. He captured conversations like no other author whom I've read.
Furthermore, his exact descriptions, although sometimes tedious, left the reader with an "exact picture of what he was describing," Gallagher said. "It's still readable, which is good. It's a very tight, very compact piece of modern realism. I can go back and reread it without getting bored. That's the only one of his books I can do that with," Balitas said.
Miller said other popular O'Hara titles with Pottsville library patrons and how many times they were checked out since 1998 include: "Gibbsville, PA.: The Classic Stories," 54; "Ten North Frederick," 52; "The Farmers Hotel," 19; "Rage to Live," 19; and "From the Terrace," 13.
People new to O'Hara's writing style might not find it so easy to read, said Robin James, assistant reference librarian at the Pottsville library.
"It takes a level of patience and you have to be in the right mood. It's period. It's like Shakespeare. After a week, it's light reading. I took a shot at the 'Gibbsville' book when I moved here. Then I tried some short stories. He is a total craftsman when it comes to the dialog, and the dynamics of his characters' interpersonal relationships. Got to admire the guy. He did a good job," James said.
"Once you get into his books, his stories are hard to put down. I think it's the way he tells the story. It has a lot to do with his character development. It has a lot to do with character-to-character relationships in his stories," Major said.
Major said his favorite is O'Hara's autobiographical story "The Doctor's Son."
Local theater groups have performed dramatizations of O'Hara short stories. One of the more recent was The Strawberry Playhouse production of O'Hara's "The Champagne Pool" at Schuylkill County Council for the Arts in Pottsville in October 2008 during Pottsville's Roaring '20s Week celebration.
Gallagher said the Schuylkill County Bicentennial Committee and the Schuylkill County Actors Guild are planning to host a few in 2011.
"These will be from his 'Gibbsville' book. It takes time because we have to find four appropriate short stories and convert them to dramatic form," Gallagher said.
Copyright © 2009 - The Republican & Herald
 

THE JOHN O'HARA SOCIETY

Be There Or Be Square

Harrisburg Hails O'Hara

Goldbeck Lectures November 11

Evening in Samarra at Yale

O'Hara Gets Academic Respect

In New York Times Book Review...

VERY RARE O'HARA FIRST...

Publication Rights

Calling All Pals: BUtterfield 8 Request

Re: "Butterfield 8" translation rights

Pal Jim Checket R.I.P.

2012 AGM Set

NYC Summer Field Trip

Editor

Better Late Than Never

Information, Please

Your Thoughts?

BUtterball 4

Hemingway and O'Hara

$5,500 Gets You an 'Appointment'

Update from AGM

Great Ear for Dialog...

Do We Like the Same O'Hara Books?

Wrestling in Pottsville

The Rodney Dangerfield of Belles Lettres

Who Are We?

John O'Hara Books Discounted for You!

No, It Wasn't Drinking

O'Hara's Other Home-town

LI Off, LA On

Gallery II: NYC

Gallery: The Field Trip

O'Hara Takes Manhattan

Evening in Samarra

The John O'Hara Gallery...

Letters

Saliba on O'Hara

This Month...

O'Hara's...

Samarra Companion Guide Gets Page

Book Review

Some Changes to O'Hara's Original

There with O'Hara Ghost

From Roberta Saliba

AGM

O'Hara Stepson and Protege Dies

WVIA-FM on O'Hara

Penn State Library Queries for Help

A Hopeful

Old Pix

Society 2010 AGM in Princeton

AGM

Welcome New Pal!

The John O'Hara Society Wishes...

Membership Query

O'Hara Gets Referenced

At RISD

Artist and RISD professor Richard Merkin in 1976.This just in from the Rhode Island School of Design

CHECK OUT NEW POSTS ...

25 October 1957

Richard Rabicoff Reports:

Welcome!

Richard Merkin RIP: O'Hara Acolyte

An O'Hara Showcase

Private Collections

Private Collections

Private Collections

Newest Member!

New O'Hara Book!

An O'Hara on O'Hara

Free Membership Freebie on the Way!

O'Hara....

At the New Yorker Building...

O'Hara Shelf

Ringing O'Hara

Free Books

Worldwide View

Writer's Query

The Big Question?

Artist and RISD professor Richard Merkin in 1976.

This just in from the Rhode Island School of Design