THE JOHN O'HARA SOCIETY celebrates the life and works of John O'Hara, Pennsylvania's pre-eminent contemporary author and America's greatest short-story writer. The JOHS studies, publishes, and diffuses works by and about the author. Membership is free. For details, contact the JOHS's Corresponding Secretary, Richard Carreño, via Philabooks@yahoo.com. © MMXXIV John O'Hara Society.
The Local Reads Book Club at the Schuylkill County Historical Society, 305 N. Centre St., will discuss the novel “Appointment in Samarra” by celebrated Pottsville author John O’Hara at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 29 at the society headquarters. It’s part of the commemoration of the 120th anniversary of O’Hara’s birth. For more information, check the society’s Facebook page or T102 Radio’s Local Reads website.
FYI
Thanks Richard.
On Jul 16, 2024, at 10:39 AM, Philabooks|Booksellers <philabooks@yahoo.com> wrote:Sorry. Never been in touch with her. Nor, she with us (meaning the John O'Hara Society). As a result, I've never bothered with her. Though I believe she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I will post your letter to the John O'Hara sites at Facebook and Blogspot for possible response.As for Addams himself, just read Brendan Gill's remembrance of him. Gill was as true friend. Figure O'Hara was a fair-weather one. John and Charlie were great friends through their love of fast cars on the dirt roads of Westhampton Beach and Quogue, carousing in Manhattan, lots of clever correspondence, exchanges of gifts and lots of partying. So, he was not a fair-weather friend, but a true friend.So many of his relationships were transactional. Also wasn't Addams involved with Maeve Brennan during periods of her tortured life? Not so sure of this as he was fairly friendly with her husband during her stormy five-year marriage to St. Clair McKelway. Then again, he had her telephone number in his address book, though I have not seen any evidence of seeing her in the thirty-five years of date books. And then again, Charlie was attracted to any good-looking, dark-haired beauty, with or without torture. I always think of Addams when I visit the "Addams" art building at Penn. And so it goes....Good luck with your project.Cordially,Richard CarreñoVox/Text: 1 215 966 9213
$ PayPal @ PhilabooksThe Inventive Life of George H. McFaddenDiscounted, signed first editions at:PHILABOOKSBOOKSELLERS-philadelphiaMore details: https://amazon.comOn Monday 15 July 2024 at 10:52:14 GMT-4, Kevin Miserocchi <festerthing@addamsfoundation.org> wrote:Dear Richard Carreño,Years ago I was in touch with Wylie O’Hara Doughty concerning her father’s great friendship with Charles Addams and gifted items between the two of them.We are currently working on a documentary of Charles Addams and would like to get back in touch with her.I have lost the contact telephone number I had for her and recall she may be living in Massachusetts, but that is just a guess.If you know how to reach her, please send her this email so that she can consider getting in touch with us about her childhood recollections of Charlie.The filmmakers will be thrilled.With best regards,H. Kevin MiserocchiTrustee
Tee & Charles Addams Foundation325 hardscrabble roadBriarcliff manor, New York 10510914-747-7125
Dear Richard Carreño,
Dear Mr. Carreño,
I am writing on behalf of the Hemingway Letters Project, housed at the Pennsylvania State University. We are publishing the Cambridge Edition of the Letters of Ernest Hemingway, and in preparing the annotations that accompany the letters we run into a number of questions that require very specialized information. I hope that you can help me out on some O’Hara questions.
It happens that on 20 October 1939, Hemingway wrote a letter to O’Hara, mentioning several details which I’ve been unable to decipher. Perhaps you can help me with this one:
Hemingway writes: “Remember you are the same O’Hara that jumped off Brooklyn bridge that time and found he could fly just like in a dream.”
Our researchers have gone through O’Hara’s works to find a scene describing such an event, and have looked in O’Hara biographies to see if this refers to a real life event. They have come up empty-handed.
Do you have any ideas what Hemingway might be referring to here? Can you think of someone else I might ask?
Thank you,
Miriam B. Mandel
Department of English Literature and American Studies
Tel Aviv University
Ramat Aviv, Israel
Editor, Hemingway Letters Project
John O'Hara's Pennsylvania Historical Marker in Pottsville
Before I get started with the latest post, I wanted to offer a small shout-out
to the women of the Herstory Club! This internet collective is made up entirely
of women of all ages who focus on the study of history, and I was recently
welcomed into the ranks. I'm very excited to be in the club
and appreciate the kind greetings I've received, so thank you!
November is here and I hope you are all well! At this time last year
PUBLISHER REQUEST
Hello,
My company is preparing an entry on John O’Hara for Literature Criticism, a reference series published by Gale-Cengage. We rely on scholars to shape these entries, and we have had a difficult time finding a scholar to advise us on this entry. I wonder if anyone at the Society might be interested?
The scholar would be credited as an academic advisor to the volume and we offer a small honorarium. I’d be happy to explain more about the job and send sample entries should anyone come to mind.
I look forward to your response.
Best regards,
Hollis
Hollis Beach
Senior Editor
Layman Poupard
843.568.6437
Hail O'Hara—Again!
By Samuel Goldman
John O’Hara’s novels and stories are one of those fashions, like wing collars or Bermuda shorts, that never quite come around again. Prominent between roughly World War II and the Great Society, O’Hara’s enormous output of fiction, which literary critics never really liked, almost immediately sank into obscurity. Every few decades, one of O’Hara’s admirers, usually a literary miner of the same sociological vein, tries to revive the writer’s reputation with biographies, glossy new editions, or appreciative essays. None of these efforts has succeeded. O’Hara’s name usually draws a blank among even well-read people younger than 60 or so.
The obstacle probably isn’t the material per se. Though he enjoyed his biggest sales in the Eisenhower era, much of O’Hara’s work is set in the 1920s. Associations with the Lost Generation, Prohibition, and the New York nightclub scene have done little to undermine, say, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s status. And while O’Hara never reaches Fitzgerald’s heights of lyricism, his characters, their actions, and their speech are more plausible than the laconic caricatures and contrived plots of Ernest Hemingway’s mid-career.
Carol Ritter Wright
