Patrick O'Brian facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Patrick O'Brian
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Patrick O'Brian
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| Born | Richard Patrick Russ 12 December 1914 Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Died | 2 January 2000 (aged 85) Dublin, Ireland |
| Resting place | Collioure, France |
| Occupation | Novelist and translator |
| Notable works | Aubrey–Maturin series |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Jones (divorced) Mary O'Brian 1945-1998 |
Patrick O'Brian, born Richard Patrick Russ (12 December 1914 – 2 January 2000), was a famous English writer and translator. He is best known for his exciting series of 20 novels, the Aubrey–Maturin series. These books are about the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.
The stories follow the adventures and friendship of an English naval captain, Jack Aubrey, and an Irish–Catalan doctor, Stephen Maturin. The first book in the series is Master and Commander. These novels are loved for their amazing historical details and realistic language from the early 1800s.
O'Brian also wrote other novels, short stories, and biographies. He translated many books from French into English, including the famous Papillon. His biggest success as a writer came later in his life, when he was in his seventies.
Contents
About Patrick O'Brian
His Early Life and Family
Patrick O'Brian was born Richard Patrick Russ in Chalfont St Peter, England. He was one of nine children. His mother passed away when he was only four years old. Biographers say he had a quiet childhood and didn't go to school all the time.
He started his writing career very early. His first novel, Caesar: The Life Story of a Panda Leopard, was published when he was just 15! He also wrote short stories that were praised by critics.
In 1935, he married his first wife, Elizabeth Jones. They had two children together. During World War II, he worked as an ambulance driver in London. He also said he worked in intelligence, which means gathering secret information. It was during this time that he met Mary Tolstoy.
After they both separated from their first partners, Patrick and Mary married in 1945. The very next month, he officially changed his name to Patrick O'Brian.
Life in France
After the war, Patrick and Mary moved to a quiet valley in Wales. Patrick loved nature and spent time fishing and watching birds. They lived on Mary's small income and the money Patrick made from his writing, which wasn't much at first.
In 1949, they moved to Collioure, a town in southern France. They lived there together until Mary's death in 1998. Mary was a huge support for Patrick throughout his writing career. Her help was very important for his success.
Interestingly, even though he wrote so much about sailing, Patrick O'Brian wasn't a great sailor himself! One person who took him on a two-week cruise said he seemed to know very little about actually sailing a boat.
His Writing Career
Early Works as Richard Russ
Before he became Patrick O'Brian, he published books and stories as Richard Patrick Russ. His first novel, Caesar, was a big hit when he was young. He also wrote a collection of animal stories called Beasts Royal.
Another notable book from this time was Hussein: An entertainment, published in 1938. It was special because it was the first modern fiction book ever published by Oxford University Press. He stopped publishing under the name Russ after 1940.
Becoming Patrick O'Brian
After the war and his name change, O'Brian started writing again. His collection of short stories, The Last Pool, was well-received. He also wrote novels like Testimonies and The Catalans, which were inspired by the places he lived.
In the 1950s, he wrote three books for younger readers: The Road to Samarcand, The Golden Ocean, and The Unknown Shore. The last two were naval stories and showed early ideas for his famous characters, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin.
O'Brian also became a respected translator, turning many French books into English. His big break came in 1969 when an American publisher suggested he write a naval novel series. This led to the start of the Aubrey–Maturin series.
The Aubrey–Maturin Series
The Aubrey–Maturin series is what made Patrick O'Brian famous. These 20 novels are set in the early 1800s and follow Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin. The books are known for using real historical events and weaving them into the story.
Readers love the series for its detailed descriptions of life at sea and its unique sense of humor. The books are so detailed that some people read them as one long, continuous story, following Aubrey and Maturin's lives and careers.
Other Books and Translations
Besides his historical novels, O'Brian wrote other adult novels and six collections of short stories. He also wrote a history book about the Royal Navy for young readers.
As a translator, he worked on over 30 books from French to English. Some of his most famous translations include Henri Charrière's Papillon and Banco. He also translated works by famous French writers like Simone de Beauvoir.
O'Brian wrote detailed biographies of two important figures: Joseph Banks, a naturalist who sailed with Captain James Cook, and the famous artist Pablo Picasso. O'Brian and Picasso actually knew each other because they both lived in the French village of Collioure.
In 2003, a movie called Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World was made. It was based on O'Brian's novels, taking ideas from several books in the Aubrey–Maturin series.
Awards and Recognition
Patrick O'Brian received several honors for his writing. In 1995, he won the first-ever Heywood Hill Literary Prize. He was 80 years old at the time and said it was his first literary prize as an adult!
He also received an honorary doctorate from Trinity College Dublin and was made a CBE in 1997.
After his death, the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth held special weekends to celebrate his work. These events included talks by historians about how well his novels showed Nelson's Navy.
His Original Manuscripts
Patrick O'Brian wrote all his books and stories by hand, using "ink and quill." He didn't use a typewriter or computer. His wife, Mary, would then type up his handwritten pages for the publisher.
Most of the original handwritten manuscripts for his Aubrey-Maturin novels are kept at the Lilly Library at Indiana University in the United States. This collection also includes his manuscripts for the biographies of Picasso and Joseph Banks.
Works
Aubrey–Maturin series
- Master and Commander (1969)
- Post Captain (1972)
- HMS Surprise (1973)
- The Mauritius Command (1977)
- Desolation Island (1978)
- The Fortune of War (1979)
- The Surgeon's Mate (1980)
- The Ionian Mission (1981)
- Treason's Harbour (1983)
- The Far Side of the World (1984)
- The Reverse of the Medal (1986)
- The Letter of Marque (1988)
- The Thirteen-Gun Salute (1989)
- The Nutmeg of Consolation (1991)
- Clarissa Oakes (1992) (published as The Truelove in the US)
- The Wine-Dark Sea (1993)
- The Commodore (1994)
- The Yellow Admiral (1996)
- The Hundred Days (1998)
- Blue at the Mizzen (1999)
- The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey (2004) (published as 21 in the US)
Other Fiction Books
- Caesar (1930)
- Hussein, An Entertainment (1938)
- Testimonies (1952) (Three Bear Witness in the UK)
- The Catalans (1953) (The Frozen Flame in the UK)
- The Road to Samarcand (1954)
- The Golden Ocean (1956)
- The Unknown Shore (1959)
- Richard Temple (1962)
Short Story Collections
- Beasts Royal (1934)
- The Last Pool and Other Stories (1950)
- The Walker and Other Stories (1955)
- Lying in the Sun and Other Stories (1956)
- The Chian Wine and Other Stories (1974)
- Collected Short Stories (1994) (The Rendezvous and Other Stories in the US)
Non-fiction Books
- Men-of-War: Life in Nelson's Navy (1974)
- Pablo Ruiz Picasso: A Biography (1976)
- Joseph Banks: A Life (1987)
- Histoire Naturelle Des Indes: The Drake Manuscript in the Pierpont Morgan Library (1996)
Poetry
- The Uncertain Land and Other Poems (2019)
French to English Translations
- Daily Life of the Aztecs on the Eve of the Spanish Conquest by Jacques Soustelle (1961)
- Daily Life in the Time of Jesus by Henri Daniel-Rops (1962)
- Munich: Peace for Our Time by Henri Nogueres (1965)
- The Horsemen by Joseph Kessel (1968)
- Papillon by Henri Charrière (1970)
- Banco: The further adventures of Papillon by Henri Charrière (1973)
- Target: Heydrich by Miroslav Ivanov (writer) (1973)
- Works by Simone de Beauvoir
- De Gaulle The Rebel 1890 - 1944 by Jean Lacouture (1990)
Edited by O'Brian
- A Book of Voyages (1947)
See also
In Spanish: Patrick O'Brian para niños
- Lord Cochrane "the sea wolf" (1775–1860)
- C. S. Forester (1899–1966), author of the Horatio Hornblower novels
- Edward Pellew (1757–1833)
