An evening exploring two remarkable voices from Irish-American literature, Mary Lavin and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Modern-day authors Gráinne Hurley (Gratefully and Affectionately: Mary Lavin and The New Yorker) and Patrick O’Sullivan Greene (Gatsby: Death of an Irishman) provide fascinating insights into the remarkable lives and literature, and some surprising connections between their chosen subjects.
Gatsby: Death of an Irishman delivers a fresh and compelling insight into the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald, exploring his complex and evolving relationship with his Irish heritage, and his own self-invention which he used to bring his most iconic character to life while writing the great American novel in Hyères and Saint-Raphaël in 1924.
Patrick O'Sullivan Greene at the Princess Grace Irish Library in 2024 when he gave a talk.
Author's biography
Patrick published his first book, Crowdfunding the Revolution: The First Dáil Loan and the Battle for Irish Independence, in 2020. The author was invited to make a courtesy visit to present the book to then President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins. His second book, Revolution at the Waldorf: America and the Irish War of Independence, was published in December 2022. Patrick has written articles for the Irish Times, been interviewed for national media and has been a guest on leading history and economic podcasts. He has presented at the Dublin Book Festival, the American Irish Historical Society in New York, and at the national conference of the American Conference for Irish Studies. Patrick has worked in business for most of his career and is back in his native Killarney after spells in Dublin, London, New York and France.
Gratefully and Affectionately: Mary Lavin and The New Yorker (New Island Books, 2025) is the first book to explore Mary Lavin’s relationship with the magazine and her editor Rachel MacKenzie. It also highlights Lavin’s close ties to major literary figures of the day--including Elizabeth Bowen, Eudora Welty, Frank O’Connor, and J. D. Salinger, who first introduced her to the publication—while offering a fascinating window into the mid-century cultural landscape.
Author Gráinne Hurley speaking at her book launch in Dublin in June 2025. The event opened with an introduction by Kathleen McMahon, granddaughter to Mary Lavin. Gráinne also had a launch in the USA hosted by Glucksman Ireland House (NYU).
Praise for Hurley's book
Gratefully and Affectionately: Mary Lavin and The New Yorker
“A very fine piece of research and beautifully written. Writer and editor are so warmly portrayed, and the insight into their relationship – both professional and personal – is fascinating.”
—Kathleen MacMahon
“A complete portrait of a most complex and brilliant personality.”
— Colm Tóibín
Gráinne Hurley’s book explores Mary Lavin's 18-year working relationship with The New Yorker magazine and in particular her chief editor, Rachel MacKenzie. They wrote nearly four hundred letters to each other and within a year of working together, they were ending their letters with ‘love’, ‘gratefully’ and ‘affectionately’. Lavin was soon offered the magazine’s highly coveted first-reading agreement. Gráinne’s impressive debut is a fascinating insight into the lives of two brilliant 20th-century literary women. Between 1958 and 1976, Mary Lavin had sixteen stories published in The New Yorker, after J. D. Salinger introduced her to the magazine. It was a prolific time for Lavin, helped in no small part by her close working relationship with her editor.
Dr Gráinne Hurley is a writer, researcher and a former lecturer. She was The Ireland Funds Monaco Writer-in-Residence at the Princess Grace Irish Library in spring 2023.
Author's biography
Gráinne holds a PhD in Contemporary Irish Literature from University College Dublin (UCD) and has a background of lecturing in English literature and drama. She wrote her book based on Mary Lavin’s relationship with The New Yorker magazine, as revealed through their extensive correspondence. Lavin, an American born Irish writer, had a first-reading agreement with The New Yorker for twenty-five years.
Gráinne has been published in diverse publications and she has presented her research at international conferences and seminars. Her research has garnered significant media and scholarly interest as it breaks new ground in the study of Mary Lavin and it has been cited in various publications including Seamus Deane’s Small World (2021) and The Oxford Book of Irish Fiction (2020). She had a chapter published in a recent Palgrave Macmillan publication, Genesis and Revision in Modern British and Irish Writers, which includes essays by worldwide leading academics.
To get a flavour of Gráinne’s research, click on a recent article: ‘Mary Lavin and The New Yorker: a creative and lucrative partnership’, by Gráinne Hurley, The Irish Times. 12 July 2021.