Life
1925- ; b. England, 10 Oct.; her father Jobey Smith, English Romany; dg. of Annie Mahoney, Irish tinker [traveller], who died at her birth; abandoned by her father on farm, where she was raised; ed. four private boarding schools and circus; horse master for Roberts Bros. circus; m. to English farmer, Swedish sculptor, and Irish journalist Fergus Casey, a child by each. Settled in Co. Kerry. DIL ATT
Works
Poetry, Hath the Rain a Father? (London: Phoenix Hse. 1966), Horse by the River and Other Poems (Dublin: Dolmen Press 1968), 2 ills. by author; Eternity Smith & Other Poems (Dublin: Dolmen 1985). Novels, The Horses of Selene (Dublin: Dolmen Press; London: Calder & Boyars 1971; NY: Grossman 1972; rep. 1985); The Circus (Dublin: Dolmen Press 1974; Nantucket, Mass: Longship Press [1974]) [Dolmen stock held by Colin Smythe].
Criticism
Gordon Henderson, ‘An Interview with Juanita Casey’, Journal of Irish Literature (Sept. 1972), pp.41-45; A Grab-bag of Juanita Casey, Journal of Irish Literature, X, 2 (May 1981); Freda Brown Jackson, ‘Juanita Casey’, in Dictionary of Literary Biography (Detroit: Broccoli Clark Book 1983).
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Commentary
Maurice Harmon, ‘First Impressions: 1968-78’, in Terence Brown & Patrick Rafroidi, eds., The Irish Short Story (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1979): ‘Some of Juanita Casey’s stories are almost entirely descriptive; their movements follow and reflect the associations of an individual mind, so that her work is attentive to myriad, shifting perceptions, to radiantly accurate description, as when the boy comes upon the dead peacock in “The Well” or the manacing zebra: “the flaring bands on its body shook and rippled [...] it had an intensity, a feline, white-hot fire behind the bars of its painted hide.”’ (pp.73-74.)
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References
Grattan Freyer, Modern Irish Writing (1979), calls her fiction D. H. Lawrence-like and selects “Housemaid’s Unconnected Knee” [poem].
Ann Owens Weekes, ed., Unveiling Treasures: The Attic Guide to the Published Works of Irish Women Literary Writers: Drama, Fiction, Poetry (Dublin: Attic Press 1993), lists Horses of Selene [Miceal, an Aranchilla islander, ruled by repressive priest’s tirades on sex, but attracted to liberated Selene, who visits island; Selene wishes to ride the speckled horse in a band of wild horses; makes love happily to remorseful Miceal]; Eternity Smith, poetry [title character is the nailor who made the nails for Christ’s cross].
University of Ulster Library holds A Sampling (Proscenium Press 1981).
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