Aidan Higgins facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Aidan Higgins
|
|
|---|---|
Aidan Higgins at home in Kinsale 2007
|
|
| Born | 3 March 1927 Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland |
| Died | 27 December 2015 (aged 88) Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Literary movement | Modernism |
Aidan Higgins (born March 3, 1927 – died December 27, 2015) was an important Irish writer. He wrote many different kinds of stories, including short stories, travel articles, radio plays, and novels. Some of his most famous books are Langrishe, Go Down (1966), Balcony of Europe (1972), and his life story Dog Days (1998).
His writing style was special. He often set his stories in interesting places outside Ireland. He also used a "stream of consciousness" style, which means he wrote down thoughts and feelings as they came to mind, like a flow of ideas. Many of his early stories were about his own life. He once said his fiction was "like slug trails, all the fiction happened," meaning his stories were often based on his real experiences.
Contents
About Aidan Higgins' Life
His Early Years
Aidan Higgins was born in Celbridge, a town in County Kildare, Ireland. He went to local schools and later to Clongowes Wood College, which is a private boarding school.
In the early 1950s, he worked in Dublin. He was a "copywriter" for an advertising company called Domas. A copywriter writes the words for advertisements. After that, he moved to London and worked in factories for about two years.
Travels and Later Life
Aidan Higgins married Jill Damaris Anders in London on November 25, 1955. Starting in 1960, Higgins traveled a lot. He spent time in Southern Spain, South Africa, Berlin, and Rhodesia (which is now Zimbabwe). In 1960 and 1961, he worked as a scriptwriter for an advertising company in Johannesburg, South Africa.
These journeys gave him lots of ideas for his later books. He wrote three autobiographies, which are books about his own life: Donkey's Years (1996), Dog Days (1998), and The Whole Hog (2000).
From 1986, Higgins lived in Kinsale, County Cork, with writer and journalist Alannah Hopkin. They got married in Dublin in November 1997. He was also one of the first members of Aosdána, an Irish group that supports artists.
Aidan Higgins passed away on December 27, 2015, in Kinsale.
Aidan Higgins' Books and Stories
Langrishe, Go Down
His first novel, Langrishe, Go Down (1966), was inspired by his childhood. He grew up in a "landed family," which means his family owned a large estate and land. The story is set in the 1930s in a big, old house in County Kildare. This house is home to the last members of the Langrishe family: three unmarried sisters. They are Catholic and live in a once-grand home that is now a bit run-down.
The book won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. It was also made into a BBC television film by famous British writer Harold Pinter, working with RTÉ (Irish television). Langrishe also received the Irish Academy of Letters Award.
Balcony of Europe
His second major novel was Balcony of Europe. It gets its name from a famous viewpoint in Nerja, a Spanish fishing village in Andalusia, where the story takes place. The book is very detailed and includes many references to other books and ideas. It uses both Spanish and Irish settings, and even includes some Spanish and German words.
The story follows the daily life of a group of people, many of whom are "expatriates" (people living outside their home country), on the beaches and in the bars of Nerja. The main character, an artist named Dan Ruttle, is very interested in his friend's young American wife, Charlotte. The book also shows the difference between his life among artists in the Mediterranean and his Irish background. In 2010, a new version of the book was published where the Irish parts were cut, and the love story between Dan Ruttle and Charlotte was made more important.
Other Works
Aidan Higgins wrote other well-known novels, including Bornholm Night Ferry and Lions of the Grunwald. Many of his writings have been collected and republished. These include his three-part autobiography, A Bestiary, and a collection of stories called Flotsam and Jetsam. These books show how much he knew about many different subjects and how much he had experienced through his travels in South Africa, Germany, and London. This gives his writing a "cosmopolitan" feel, meaning it includes ideas and influences from many different parts of the world. He often used phrases from various European languages in his writing.
Awards and Recognition
- Felo de Se – Somin Trust Award, 1963
- Langrishe, Go Down – James Tait Black Memorial Prize, 1967
- DAAD scholarship of Berlin, 1969
- American Irish Foundation grant, 1977
- D.D.L., National University of Ireland, 2001
