I've been working on cataloguing a big collection of James Hanley material recently. Hanley (1901-85) was an Anglo-Irish writer who lived most of his life in Wales. He wrote mainly about The Sea; bleak tales where, if the characters aren't killed quickly by their decision to go to sea, their spirits are washed away one wave at a time. Hanley has a loyal following and a few of his books are very hard to come by now. Resurrexit Dominus, about a Priest feeling the pinch of his celibacy vow; A House in the Valley by "Patric Shone", about a boy being raised by his in-laws and Emily - one I've yet to read and haven't a clue as to what it's about - are amongst the hardest to find.
During library school I worked on an addenda to Hanley's excellent bibliography by Linnea Gibbs; describing some of the items she was unable to find and adding a very few titles that had eluded her. I've renewed my interest in the addenda and may publish some of the items on this blog in near future. We'll see...
1 comment:
I got this comment on the old site and have transferred it here. An author from New Zealand writes:
I was just checking out what was on the web about Hanley's "Resurrexit Dominus" (of which we have one of the 11 presentation copies) and found your blog. I am in the process of preparing a Boriswood bibliography in which the book will be a footnote since Boriswood could not publish it because of the litigation over not the publication of "Boy" as such but the publication of the "cheap" edition with its risque dust jacket. All the best with your Hanley project.
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