From the Abbey Theatre to America
Colum was born in Longford in 1881. His early familiarity with rural lives and voices supplied material for poetry and plays. He became involved in the Irish literary revival, and his drama reached the Abbey Theatre. Thomas Muskerry, set in a workhouse, drew on a world he had known from childhood.
In 1914 he and his wife Mary, a writer and critic, left Ireland for America. A visit developed into a much longer life abroad, during which he found success writing for children. He continued poetry, biography and recollections of friends from the Irish literary world. Mary died in 1957, and Padraic lived until 1972.
Stories for two illustrators
The Children of Odin arranges Norse myths into a continuing narrative of gods, bargains and approaching disaster. Willy Pogany illustrates moments such as Iduna beneath the apple tree and Odin seeking wisdom. The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter follows Eean, a fisherman’s son, into a world of impossible bridges and guarded castles. Its 1920 Macmillan edition credits Dugald Stuart Walker with the illustrations. Colum’s precise account of an object or gesture gives the marvellous events the confidence of a story told aloud.
