Sean Dorman


Life
c.1910-? [bapt. John Dorman]; b. at Dykes Park, Cork; nephew of Lennox Robinson [q.v.]; he was the son of an engineer working in the Roads & Building Branch of the India Public Works Dept.; travelled to the Punjab at six weeks; also lived in Algiers, and Aden with his parents; enter Castle Park School, Dalkey, 1919; went on to St. Columba’s College, where he edited the school magazine; grad. Worcester Coll., Oxford, 1934;
 
worked as a freelance journalist in London; ghosted non-fiction; sometime teacher of French and German in primary and secondary schools; he edited and produced Commentary, in Dublin during the early 1940s - and traded at the annual book-fair; wrote a burlesque on Chekhov for the Dublin Gate Theatre [q.d.]; also a wrote radio play for RTÉ; founded the Sean Dorman Manuscript Soc., in London, 1957- ; ed. Writing, 1959-

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Works
Fiction & Commentary
  • Brigid and the Mountain (Peter Davies 1944); Do. [rep. edn.] (Raffeen Press 1985]), vi,153pp.; and Do. (Raffeen Press 1995), 136pp.
  • Limelight over the Liffey (Fowey: Raffeen Press [1983]), 192, viiipp.; also as “My Uncle Lennox” (Fowet: Raffeen Press [1986], 192, viipp.
  • Red Roses for Jenny: A Novel, and Other Stories (Fowey: Raffeen 1987), iv, 220, xip.; Do. [version two] (Fowey: Raffeen Press 1988), and Do. [rep. edn.] (1995), 166pp. [four short stories and a poem].
  • Oxford and Elsewhere (Cornwall: Raffeen 1989) [var. pagings].
  • The Madonna ([Fowey:] Raffeen 1991), iv, 196pp.
  • Madonna Again: A Novel (Fowey: Raffeen Press 1992), iv, pp.177-396, pp.v-xv [‘Forming [...] one novel with its predecessor The Madonna’ - Preface].
  • Portrait of My Youth (Fowey: Raffeen 1992), xvi, [Bibl. pvii-xvi]. 224pp., ill [3pp. of pls.; ports.]; Do. [rep.] (1995 ), 185pp.
  • Physicians, Priests and Physicists (Fowey: Raffeen 1993), iv, 108, xviipp. [essays].
  • The Madonna (Fowey: Raffeen [1995]), 286pp. [orig. in 2 parts as The Madonna (1991) and The Madonna Again (1992); here Vol. 3 of The Selected Works of Sean Dorman (1993)]. Dates of available copies: 1995, 19; 20 cm.
Collected edns.
  • The Selected Works of Sean Dorman, 3 vols. (Fowey [Cornwall]: Raffeen Books 1993) [see details].
  • The Complete Works of Sean Dorman, 5 vols. (Fowey: Raffeen 1998) [see details]

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Bibliographical details
The Selected Works of Sean Dorman, 3 vols. (Fowey [Cornwall]: Raffeen Books 1993), [hb.] ill. [some col.; 24cm.] CONTENTS: 1. Portrait of my Youth; Physicians, Priests, and Physicists. Vol. 2: Brigid and the Mountain; Red Roses for Jenny., Vol. 3: The Madonna. (Copies available at Sheffield, Bristol, Nottingham, St. Andrews UL; see COPAC online.) [Also available at 8 bookssellers in Abebooks - online, 23.03.2012.]

The Complete Works of Sean Dorman, 5 vols. (Fowey: Raffeen 1998) [21cm.]. CONTENTS -: Vol. 1: Portrait of my Youth [189pp.]; Physicians, Priests & Physicists [90pp.]. Vol. 2: Brigid and the Mountain; The Strong Man [105pp.]. Vol. 3: Red Roses for Jenny; Essays from the Past [280pp.]. Vol. 4: The Madonna [286pp.]. Vol. 5: Sex and the Reverend Strong; Interviews with the Celebrated [389pp.]. Copy available in TCD Library; see COPAC online.]  

Note: Physicians, Priests, and Physicists (1996 edn.; 90pp.) front-cover & details are available at Google Books - online; accessed 23.03.2012.

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Notes
Sean Dorman Manuscript Society: Founded in 1957, the Society provides mutual help among writers and aspiring writers in England, Wales and Scotland. By means of circulating manuscript parcels, members receive constructive criticism of their own. Contact: Mrs. E.J. Smith, 3 High Rd., Britford, Salisbury, Wilts., SP5 4DS [see Writewords.org Directory - online; no email given; accessed 23.03.2012.]

Correspondence - Shane O’Toole writes to RICORSO: ‘He was born c.1910, with the given name John, at Dykes Parade in Cork city, before leaving, aged six weeks, for the Punjab in India with his parents, where his father was an engineer in the Roads and Buildings branch of the Public Works Department. He says he spent nine years in India, before returning to Ireland for schooling when the “first World War had been over a year” (p21). His parents returned to India immediately after he was enrolled. He was educated from age 9 at Castle Park, Dalkey, and later at St Columba’s, before going up to Worcester College, Oxford, for Michaelmas Term in 1930, aged 19 (p36). The “alcoholic uncle” was his maternal uncle and godfather, Lennox Robinson.’ O’Toole has read Portrait of My Youth in the 1995 Raffeen printing in the course of his research into 1940s Dublin.

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