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Fun Facts Friday: Richard Ellmann

Richard Ellmann (15 March, 1918 – 13 May, 1987) was a noted biographer and literary critic. Mr. Ellmann specialized in biographies of Irish writers.

Books by Richard Ellmann

Son of Jewish Romanian immigrant, Ellmann served in the US Navy during World War II.
Ellman received his B.A., M.A. and PhD from Yale University.
He won the John Addison Porter Prize for his PhD work.
Mr. Ellman was Goldsmiths’ professor of English lit. at Oxford.
Mrs. Mary Ellman was an essayist.
Ellman’s most noted biographies are those of George Yeats, James Joyce and Oscar Wilde.
Oscar Wilde’s biography won a Pulitzer Prize and is still referred to as a standard in biographies and is considered the definitive work on the life of the author.
In his biography of James Joyce, Ellmann quoted extensively from Finnegans Wake.
Ellman won the U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction for James Joyce.
In 1982 a revised editon of James Joyce was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

Books by Richard Ellmann

Zohar – Man of la Book

Man of la Book

A father, husband, avid reader, blogger, software engineer & wood worker who is known the world over as a man of many interests and to his wife as “an idiot”.

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Christine Bode says:

March 15, 2013 at 4:01 pm

I really enjoyed reading these fun facts on Richard Ellman. Now I know who to seek out if I want to read a biography on Wilde, Yeats or Joyce and as I love all things Irish, I probably will at some point!