DONN BYRNE

Taranaki Daily News, 17 June 1933, Page 13 (Supplement)

DONN BYRNE

BEaUTY AND WIZARDRY

(By “J.N.”) It is voicing no new theory to say that literature has ever mirrored the age. In this twentieth century there have been many changes, and the unrest, the searching for new and strange things and effects, and the disillusion of the age have been faithfully reflected in its literature. The tendency has therefore been, in the consideration and expounding of new theories and creeds, to concentrate rather on the material than on the manner of its presentation. Style has in many cases been almost disregarded.’ It is, then, refreshing to find a writer to whom beauty of word and phrase are all-important, whose very writing is music, whose voice flows on in a silver stream of melody. Such a one was Donn Byrne. It is five years to-morrow since Donn Byrne died, yet it seems scarce any time at all. There are many, in fact, who do ■ not realise that he is gone. This has to a large extent been due to the manner in which new books of his have continued to come from the publisher, some as late as last year. “That I was bom in America is not my fault at all,” wrote Donn Byrne in a letter several months before he was the victim of an unfortunate motor accident. The family had for long been a wandering one, and his father, “a perfect lunatic on the subject of bridges,” crossed the Atlantic to see the one in Genesee Valley. Thus it was that on November 20, 1889, there was bom to Tomas Fearghail Donn-Byrne and Jane D’Arcy McFarlane, in the city of New York, a son, who was afterwards christened Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne. Shortly after the return of the family to South Armagh, Ireland, the father succumbed to an attack of pneumonia. Brian was thus left to play with his sister Rosaly, but with a gap of five years separating them and their temperaments differing as widely as two children of the same parents could possibly be, he was left very much to his own resources. This was accentuated by the financial difficulties in which the family, never particularly affluent, now found itself. Fortunately the boy was able to help during the years of his early education, by winning scholarships in the various schools which he attended. At Dublin University College Brian distinguished himself by his ready wit and wonderful store of Gaelic knowledge. He was unusually well versed in the Gaelic, and while still at school won the coveted bronze medal for Irish, ranking first in Ireland for that year. He continued to win scholarships and honours of various sorts, from prizes in English, French, and Gaelic literatures to the title of lightweight boxing champion of the University.

His student associations led Brian Donn-Byrne to consider seriously the prospect of embarking upon a diplomatic career. Sir Roger Casement, Bulmer Hobson, and many others of his acquaintance were imbued with the desire of playing an active role in' the unsettled affairs of the country, so that it was only natural that he, too; should not want to be left out. l He hoped through this connection to obtain a post in the British Foreign Office, and with this object in view continued his studies on the Continent after he took his degree at Dublin. His first attempt at earning a living, however, was made in 1911, when 1 he commenced work with the “Catholic Encyclopedia.” On August 12 in the same year he secured a better position under Dr. Frank Vizetelly on the staff of the “New. Standard Dictionary,”, ( thereby earning thirty dollars a week. In that same year he was married to Dorothea Cadogan, a young woman from the South of Ireland whom he had met at University. Faced with the necessity of providing for two, Brian endeavoured to supplement his thirty dollars with whatever he could make in his free hours by means of verse-writing, book-reviewing, and literary hackwork of all kinds. It was at this time that he -dropped the hyphen from his family name and began to sign his name simply as Donn Bryne. Bits of Irish verse in newspapers and periodicals, and particularly a short poem called “The Harper,” won him a place in a poetry society. It was some time later, however, before he attempted prose, but he achieved instant success with his first short story “Battle.” This and many following were published in “Smart Set,” and in a very short time the list of magazines including Donn Byrne among their contributors had grown remarkably. In 1915 appeared his first book, a volume of .short stories called “Stories Without Women.”

For some years he had waited to commence his first novel, and in 1917 he made a start. He had certain decided views on hovel writing, as most beginning novelists seem to have, and his ideal of the perfect novel he then expressed thus: “The form of the novel is changing. We are passing from the conventional, slow-moving, cumbersome three-decker of Victorian days to a tale that is a collection of vivid pictures strung together by a central theme and relieved at logical intervals by slow fadeouts of physical scenery and of mental atmosphere. As to the substance of a novel, that ought to be a study of an important phase of modern life and the theme and its treatment should have material value as well as artistic.” This first novel was published towards the end of 1919 under the title “The Stranger’s Banquet.” It was a markedly uneven book, but it gave more than a hint of what was to come.

His first really outstanding work yzas “Messer Marco Polo” (1921). The book delighted the literary world, far surpassing the most enthusiastic anticipations; “a very magically beautiful book,” “a fantastic and gracious pageant, saddened tenderly by the evanescence of its beauty,” are some of the comments of leading American writers of the day. His next, “The Wind Bloweth,” was just as enthusiastically received. His later books arc well-known in every household “Hangman’s House” (1926) “Brother Saul” (1927) and “Crusade” (1928) being some of the best and most popular.

Tn all his work Domi Byrne was intensely patriotic, essentially Gaelic in style and subject. It is doubtful if a more beautiful writer has ever been known in this century. A reviewer once said, “To Dorm Byrne at his birth angels gave the power to paint with words as, probably no contemporary writer is capable of painting and a lyrical quality of style comparable only to the dignified nostalgia, the wild sweetness of Yeats.” Donn Byrne was thirty-eight when as a result of a motor accident on June 18, 1928, he died, and it is everywhere believed that his best work was yet to' come. However, his writings remain to' us as the most exquisitely beautiful, most enchanting and most romantically Erse we may hope to find for many years.