Walter Macken

Walter Macken， the famous novelist， playwright and actor， was born in Galway in 1915. He first began to write at the age of eight. He joined the Taibhdhearc in 1934， while still attending school. It was there he met his wife， Peggy Kenny； who was then news editor. She was six years older than he was. They fell in love， but her father， Tom Cork Kenny didn't approve of Peggy's choice， so they had to elope and were married in Fairview Church in Dublin on February 9th 1937. They went to London where he worked as an insurance agent， selling insurance door to door， as he later wrote about in I Am Alone.

　　Returning to Galway in 1939， Walter took up the post of theatre manager with the Taibhdhearc. At this time， he began to write both in Irish and English. By 1946 his first play in English， Mungo's Mansion， had been successfully staged at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin， and his first novel， Quench the Moon， had been accepted for publication.

　　In 1948 he joined the Abbey for three years. A year later his second novel， I Am Alone， was published， and in 1950 his third novel， Rain on the Wind， brought him international recognition， winning the Book of the Month Club and the Literary Guild award. A successful US theatre tour gave him the impetus to return home to Galway to establish a career for himself as a full-time writer.

　　In 1957 he embarked on his most ambitious writing project： the three historical novels， Seek the Fair Land， The Silent People and The Scorching Wind， and in 1964 his first children's novel， Island of the Great Yellow Ox， proved to be one of his most popular books. In all， he produced a body of work which finally came to ten novels， seven plays， three books of short stories and two children's books； most of his novels have been translated into many languages. His last novel， Brown Lord of the Mountain， was published just before his death on 22 April 1967. Brandon published two posthumous collections of his short stories in the 1990s.