Description: [This literary companion surveys the life, works, and awards of Irish playwright Brian Friel. Entries investigate his milieu and such topics as religion, violence, and achievement. Character summaries reprise his most significant figures, particularly St. Columba, the victims of Derry's Bloody Sunday, and Hugh O'Neill, the Lord of Tyrone. Coverage of Friel's column in the Irish Times and his short fiction in the New Yorker leads up to the style and influence of his most recent plays, Philadelphia, Here I Come!, Translations, and Dancing at Lughnasa.]
Brief description: Mary Ellen Snodgrass is an award-winning author of English and Latin textbooks and reference works for 40 years. She taught at Hickory High School and Lenoir Rhyne University in North Carolina for 23 years. Her writing focuses on women's and world literature and history and general research topics, including epidemics, the history of money, clothing, food, and dance. She lives in Hickory, North Carolina.
Review Quotes: "features over 65 entries on Friel and his work.... Snodgrass often utilizes graphs and tables in her entries to illustrate relationships between literary characters and works, and her biographical research is particularly strong. This resource is a credible aid to Friel scholarship. Highly recommended"--Choice; "a fascinating literary reference work exhibiting a high level of scholarship...highly recommended"--ARBA; "excellent series of Literary Companions"--Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.