Thomas Bonner Flanagan (November 5, 1923 – March 21, 2002) was an American university professor at the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

and novelist.

Biography

Flanagan was born in 1923 in

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast, Greenwich is home to many hedge funds and other ...

, to a homemaker mother and a dentist father. All of his grandparents had come to the United States from

County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of 1,691 km2 (653 sq mi) and has a population of 61,805 ...

, Ireland. He served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. He graduated from Amherst College in 1945. He received his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. From 1960 to 1978 he was Professor of English Literature at the

, specializing in

Irish literature Irish literature comprises writings in the Irish, Latin, English and Scots ( Ulster Scots) languages on the island of Ireland. The earliest recorded Irish writing dates from the 7th century and was produced by monks writing in both Latin a ...

. He was a tenured Full Professor in the English Department at the Stony Brook University until his retirement. Flanagan was also a successful novelist. His first novel, ''The Year of the French'', won the National Book Critics Award for fiction in 1979 and was adapted into a TV series, which was broadcast in Ireland in 1982.

Personal life

In 1949, he married Jane Parker, a nurse; they had two children, writer Caitlin Flanagan and Ellen Flanagan Klavan. His son-in-law is writer

Andrew Klavan Andrew Klavan (; born July 13, 1954) is an American writer of crime and suspense novels. Klavan has been nominated for the Edgar Award five times and has won twice. Klavan has also worked in film and as an essayist and video satirist. He is also ...

. He and his wife spent much of their time in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. They lived in East Setauket, Long Island. He died in March 21, 2002 at the age of 78 in Berkeley.

Works

Historical novels

*
The Year of the French
' (1979); (2004) *''The Tenants of Time'' (1988) *''The End of the Hunt'' (1995)

Non-fiction work

*''The Irish Novelists 1800–1850'' (1958)

Legacy

The Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College holds his papers.

References

Sources

Thomas Flanagan on Irish writers website page

External links

1923 births 2002 deaths 20th-century American novelists Columbia University alumni Amherst College alumni Writers from Greenwich, Connecticut University of California, Berkeley faculty Writers from California American historical novelists American male novelists American people of Irish descent 20th-century American male writers Novelists from Connecticut American atheists United States Army personnel of World War II {{US-novelist-1920s-stub