O'Connor, Philip, 1916-1998

Philip Marie Constant Bancroft O'Connor, Irish memoirist and poet, was born on 8 September 1916 in Leighton Buzzard, Buckinghamshire, but spent part of a disturbed childhood in France. He has described his unconventional upbringing and early bohemian life-style in his autobiography, Memoirs of a Public Baby (London, 1958). As well as his collections of verse, Selected Poems 1936-1966 (London, 1968) and Arias of Water (London, 1981), O'Connor's varied corpus of work includes sociology ( Vagrancy, Harmondsworth, 1963), personal reminiscence ( The Lower View, London, 1960), and an autobiographical novel, ( Steiner's Tour, Paris, 1960). His work was first published in New Verse during the 1930s. He was twice married, had at least nine children, and died on 29 May 1998.

From the guide to the Letters and papers of Philip O'Connor with some of his writings, 1916-1998, (Leeds University Library)