Author’s debut novel was profane classic
J.P. Donleavy, the incorrigible Irish-American author and playwright whose ribald debut novel The Ginger Man met scorn, censorship and eventually celebration as a groundbreaking classic, has died at age 91.
The author of more than a dozen books, Donleavy was sometimes compared to James Joyce as a prose stylist but also admired for his sense of humour. The Ginger Man, first published in 1955, sold more than 45 million copies and placed No. 99 on a Modern Library list of the greatest English language fiction of the 20th century.
When the novel was published, authorities targeted its profanity and graphic sexual content. It was banned in Ireland and the U.S.
But it sold so well that it enabled Donleavy to buy publisher Olympia after he and the company spent years suing each other over rights to the book.
The author adapted The Ginger Man for the London stage in 1959, but it closed within days in part because of objections from the Roman Catholic Church.
The Ginger Man is also among the most prominent novels never to have been made into a feature film.
Donleavy was married (and divorced) twice. He became an Irish citizen in middle age after the government granted artists tax-exempt status.
“Money, above all things,” Donleavy responded when asked in 1975 about his motivations. “Fame goes, but money never does.”