Constantine Fitzgibbon

Life
1919-1983; [Robert Louis Constantine Lee-Dillon Fitzgibbon; var. FitzGibbon], b. Massechussetts, of American f. and Northern Irish m. [or vice-versa?]; ed. Munich and Sorbonne, and Exeter Coll., Oxon.; served in both the British and US Armies in WWII; taught briefly in Bermuda; settled in England and later moved to Ireland; m. Theodora Fitzgibbon (celebrated Irish Times cooking columnist, etc.); divorced; afterwards m. Margorie Fitzgibbon, the sculptor; his novels incl. When the Kissing Had to Stop (1960), a successful thriller-fantasy [n.d.] and High Heroic (1969), a novel on the life of Michael Collins;

issued The Blitz (1957), with ills. by Henry Moore; also Eamon De Valera (1973),a biog.; other novels incl. Miss Finnigan’s Fault (1953); Out of the Lion’s Paw, history (1969); Red Hand, The Ulster Colony (1971); issued a translation of the autobiography of Rudolph Hoess, commandant of Auschwitz; FitzGibbon was living in Dorset, England, in 1966, when he replied to Conor Cruise O'Brien's review of his life of Dylan Thomas in the New York Review of Books; d. March 1983, in Dublin; he held American citizenship. DIL DIW

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Works
Fiction, The Arabian Bird (1948); The Iron Hoop (1949); Dear Emily (1952); The Holiday (1953); The Fair Game (1956); Paradise Lost and More (1959); Watcher in Florence (1959); When the Kissing had To Stop (1960); Going to the River (Lon. 1963); High Heroic (1969); In the Bunker (1973); The Golden Age (1975); Man in Aspic (1977).

Non-fiction, The Life of Dylan Thomas (1966); London’s Burning [The Blitz] (1957; new ed. 1970); Denazification (London: W. W. Norton 1969), 222pp. [hb.; red print on black cover]; Red Hand: The Ulster Colony (London 1971); De Valera (1973); Secret Intelligence in the 20th Century (1976); Drink (1979); The Irish in Ireland (1983), also a play, The Devil at Work (Abbey 1971). Num. translations from French, German, and Italian.

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Criticism
Conor Cruise O’Brien, ‘The Dylan Cult”, review of The Life of Dylan Thomas by Constantine FitzGibbon and Dylan Thomas and Poetic Dissociation by David Holbrook, in New York Review of Books (9 Dec. 9, 1965); see also FitzGibbon’s response and O’Brien’s reply (3. Feb. 1966) - under RICORSO > Library >Reviews - as infra.

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References

British Library Catalogue lists under “FitzGibbon”), Michael Joseph: London, 1952. 8o. [42] Panzer leader foreword by B. H. Liddell Hart trans. 10th impression, London: Joseph, 1970. SBN 7181 0800 0, 528pp.: plates maps, ports. 24 cm. [43] [Le Naïf locataire.] The Innocent Tenant. Trans., pp.222. Jonathan Cape: London, 1957. 8o. [44] Commandant of Auschwitz. The autobiography of R. Hoess, etc. (Trans..) [With plates.]. pp.281. Pan Books: London, 1961. 8o. [45] [Kommandant in Auschwitz.] Commandant of Auschwitz. The autobiography of R. Hoess, Trans. [with plates.], pp.252. Weidenfeld & Nicolson: London, [1959.] 8o. [46] Haven’t we met before somewhere? Germany from the inside and out: by Ronald Searle & Heinz Huber translated [from the German] [Text by H. Huber, with illustrations by R. Searle.]. London: Heinemann, 1966. pp.190. 29 cm. [47] Children of the Ashes, Trans. [With a map.]. pp.308. Penguin Books: Harmondsworth, 1963. 8o. [48] [Strahlen aus der Asche.] Children of the Ashes. The story of a rebirth, Trans. [On the reconstruction of Hiroshima after the atomic bomb of 6 August 1945. With plates.]. pp.317. Heinemann: London, 1961. 8o. [49] [Ost minus West=Null.] Are the Russians Ten Feet Tall? Translated and with an introduction by Constantine Fitzgibbon, Trans. with Sybil Welch. [With plates and maps.]. pp.420. Thames & Hudson: London, 1961. 8o. [50] The Kersten Memoirs, 1940-1945. With an introduction by H. R. Trevor-Roper. Translated from the German with James Oliver, pp.314. Hutchinson: London, 1956. 8o. [51] The Maxims of the Duc de la Rochefoucauld. Trans., together with an introduction and bibliographical note. [With a portrait.]. pp.173. Allan Wingate: London, 1957. 8o. [52] [Der geheime Nachrichtendienst der deutschen Wehrmacht im Kriege.] German Military Intelligence. Trans. with R. H. Stevens [With plates.]. pp.vii. 209. Weidenfeld & Nicolson: London, 1954. 8o. [53] [L’Orgue à bouteilles.] The Bottle Organ, trans., pp.240. Allan Wingate: London, 1952. 8o. [54] [Les Gamins du roi de Sicile.] Sicily Street, Trans., etc, pp.221. Wingate: London & New York, 1951. 8o. [55] Operation Cicero, Trans. with Heinrich Fraenkel, pp.155. Hamilton & Co.: London, 1956. 8o. [56] Operation Cicero, Trans. with Heinrich Fraenkel, pp.183. News of the World: [London,] 1952. 8o. [57] Operation Cicero, With a postscript by Franz von Papen. Trans. with Heinrich Fraenkel. [On German espionage in Ankara 1943-44.]. pp.208. Wingate: London, New York, 1950. 8o. [58] Operation Cicero. A condensation, Trans. with Heinrich Fraenkel. (Decorations by Howard Willard.) [59] Operation Cicero, etc. [Trans..] [A reissue.] Operation Cicero, &c., London & New York: Allan Wingate-Baker, 1969. SBN 09 305 050 X pp.190. 21 cm, London: Tandem, 1969. SBN 4260 3754 5 19 cm. [60] Other Men’s Graves. (Trans..). pp.286. World Distributors: London, 1965. 8o. [61] [SS.] Other Men’s Graves, Trans., pp.286. World Distributors: London, 1959. 8o. [62] [SS.] Other Men’s Graves, Trans. [An account of the author’s experiences as a member of the SS in the second world war.]. pp.286. Weidenfeld & Nicolson: London, [1958.] 8o. [63] [Der Barras.] The Soldier, Trans. [A novel.]. pp.208. Frederick Muller: London, 1954. 8o. [64] [Mein General.] The General, Trans., pp.150. Frederick Muller: London, 1956. 8o. [65] [Mein General.] The General, etc. (Trans..). pp.159. Brown, Watson: London Dublin printed, [1958.] 8o. [66] The Soldier, Trans., pp.191. Viking Press: London, [1957.] 8o. [67] A Love Affair in Rome. Trans., pp.157. Penguin Books: Harmondsworth, 1961. 8o. [68] [Un Amore a Roma.] A Love Affair in Rome, Trans. [A novel.]. pp.158. Chatto & Windus: London, 1958. 8o. [69] The Little Tour. By G. Playfair and Constantine Fitz-Gibbon. Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, San Marino, etc. [With plates.]. pp.x. 222. Cassell & Co.: London, 1954. 8o. [70] [Verwunsches Land Mexico.] A Land Bewitched Mexico in the shadow of the centuries, Translated by Constance FitzGibbon. [With plates.]. pp.ix. 239. Putnam: London, 1955. 8o. [71] The Fatal Decisions. With a commentary by, Siegfried Westphal. [By], Werner Kreipe [and others], etc. (Edited by W. Richardson and S. Freidin. Trans..) [Accounts of six battles of the Second World War, by German generals. With maps and portraits.]. pp.xii. 261. Michael Joseph: London, 1956. 8o. [72] The Fatal Decisions. With a commentary by Lieutenant General Siegfried Westphal. (Edited by William Richardson and Seymour Freidin. Trans. from the German . With an introduction by Cyril Falls. [By Werner Kreipe and others.]. pp.283. World Distributors: London, 1965. 8o. [73] [Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke.] The Cornet, Translated by Constantine Fitz Gibbon, pp.32. Allan Wingate: London, 1958. 8o. [74] [Der Fragebogen.] The Answers of Ernst von Salomon to the 131 Questions in the Allied Military Government ‘Fragebogen’, Translated by Constantine FitzGibbon, pp.xii. 546. Putnam: London, 1954. 8o. [75] [Stalingrad, bis zur letzen Patrone.] Stalingrad. Trans. [With plates.]. pp.263. Michael Joseph: London, 1958. 8o. [76] Stalingrad, Trans., pp.316. Pan Books: London, 1960. 8o. [77] [Der verbrannte Dornbusch.] The Wind and the Flame, Translated from the German by Constantine FitzGibbon, pp.viii. 416. Wingate: London & New York, 1951. 8o. [78] [Die verlorene Bucht.] The Lost Bay. Trans., pp.304. Andre Deutsch: London, 1956. 8o. [79] [Le Talon d’Achille.] The Achilles Heel, Trans. [Essays.]. pp.224. Andre Deutsch: London Amsterdam printed, 1959. 8o. [80] Than a tear in the sea, Trans., New York, Tel Aviv: Bergen Belsen Memorial Press of the World Federation of Bergen-Belsen Associations, 1967. pp.xxi, 89. 24 cm., [81] The Achilles heel, Trans.. (Reissued.]. Port Washington, N.Y., London: Kennikat Press, 1971. ISBN 0 8046 1420 2 pp.224. 23 cm,, [82] To Dusty Death, trans. from German, pp.264. Wingate: London & New York, 1952. 8o. [83] [Les Russes.] The Russians, Trans., pp.176. Frederick Muller: London, 1960. 8o. [84] [Soraya: meine wahre Geschichte.] The Autobiography of H.I.H. Princess Soraya. Trans. [With plates, including portraits.]. pp.183. Arthur Barker: London, [1963.] 8o. [85] Selected letters of Dylan Thomas. [Edited by] Constantine Fitzgibbon, London: Dent, 1966. pp.xii, 420. 22 cm. [86] [La Neige en deuil.] The Mountain, Trans., pp.158. W. H. Allen: London, [1953.] 8o. [87] The Mountain. [Trans..]. pp.158. Viking Press: London, [1956.] 8o. [88] Dearest Mama, etc. (Trans..). pp.158. Brown, Watson: London, [1960.] 8o. [89] [Meine schöne Mama.] Dearest Mama. Trans., pp.159. James Barrie: London, 1956. 8o. [90] Advocate for the Dead, Trans. with Andrew Foster-Melliar, pp.189. Landsborough Publications: London, 1959. 8o. [91] [Die Geschichte von Joel Brand.] Advocate for the Dead. The story of Joel Brand. Trans. with Andrew Foster-Melliar, pp.255. Andre Deutsch: London, 1958. 8o. [92] After the Flood, Translated from the German by Constantine FitzGibbon. [A collection of personal stories of the period from 1945 to 1951 in Europe.]. pp.215. Weidenfeld & Nicolson: London, 1954. 8o. [93] [Complete Works.] Hallam Edition. (Translated by Eden and Cedar Paul.). Cassell & Co.: London, 1949-. 8o.; The maxims of the duc de la Rochefoucauld trans. by Constantine FitzGibbon together with an introduction and bibliographical note (1974); The life of Dylan Thomas (1975); Man in aspic (1977); Secret intelligence in the twentieth century (1978); The golden age (1978); When the kissing had to stop (1978); The rat report (1980); Drink, foreword by J.N.P. Moore (1980); The Irish in Ireland (c1983); Secret intelligence in the twentieth century by Constantine FitzGibbon (1976); To kill Hitler: the officers’ plot, July 1944 (1994). Under “Fitz Gibbon”: The maxims of the duc de la Rochefoucauld trans. by Constantine FitzGibbon together with an introduction and bibliographical note (1974); The life of Dylan Thomas (1975); Man in aspic (1977); Secret intelligence in the twentieth century (1976, 1978); The golden age (1978); When the kissing had to stop (1978); The rat report (1980); Drink, foreword by J. N. P. Moore (1980); The Irish in Ireland (c1983); To kill Hitler: the officers’ plot, July 1944 (1994).

Hannah Arendt Papers (Library of Congress) incl. Constantine FitzGibbon to Hannah Arendt, 1963 [letter] . Courtesy of the estate of Constantine FitzGibbon, c/o David Higham Associates, Ltd., 5-8 Lower John Street, Golden Square, London W1R 4HA, England.

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Notes
Holocaust: FitzGibbon's holocaust writings incl. translations of Manes Sperber, The Abyss (NY: Doubleday & Co. 1952), Journey without End. (NY: Doubleday & Co. 19540, and Than a Tear in the Sea (NY & Tel Aviv: Bergen-Belsen Memorial Press 1967).

Denazification: trans., Commandant at Auschwitz: The Autobiography of Rudolf Hoess (1959), and called 'the exterminationist writer' on the Institute for Historical Review website. his half-br. Louis FitzGibbon wrote Katyn, the story of the Soviet murder of 15,000 Polish officers.

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