THE TIMES I'VE SEEN: A Biography of Oliver St. John Gogarty

by Ulick O'Connor ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 1964

By middle life Gogarty had become a champion athlete and swimmer, a senator of the Irish Free State, a surgeon, a dramatist, poet and aviator, but it seems that he is destined to be remembered as the man whom James Joyce characterized as Buck in Ulysses. This is quite a paradox when one remembers that, when he was compiling the Oxford Book of Modern Verse, Yeats included seventeen poems by Gogarty and only three by Joyce. Perhaps the definitive comment about Gogarty was made by , who said, ""Gogarty never stays long at his best, but how beautiful that best , how noble, how joyous"". Gogarty is known in this country for his wit and comment, his debunking of Ulysses as a huge joke, and as a master of conversation. In this department he met his match only once -- in a dinner duel with Bernard' Shaw. The bitterest irony of his life was that, after supporting Sinn Fein and Irish freedom from British rule, it became unsafe for him to live in his own country and he spent his later years in London and New York. Biographer O'Connor, a friend of presents him in all his gusto and against the background of Dublin pubs nd libraries and of the many, many circles to which Gogarty belonged. Few will able to resist him.

Pub Date: March 17, 1964

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Obolensky

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1964

Categories: NONFICTION