It's never been unusual for me to read a new author, really enjoy their work and then proceed to look for and read (or try and read) everything else I can find by them. If you look at my bookshelves you can see whole rows of books by single authors--Maraget Atwood, Elizabeth Berg, Diane Johnson, Sebastien Japrisot, Mary Wesley (especially Mary Wesley!)...you get the idea. Although I'm a little more selective now and I approach the reading a little differently, I still have authors whose work I want to read all of. These days its Daphne du Maurier, Rosamond Lehmann, Elizabeth Taylor along with a few others. Now I am a little more systematic in how or in what order I want to read their work, and I like to supplement the reading with a biography or maybe criticism. Well, I have a new author to add to the list.
Not long ago I read something by Molly Keane and loved it. I already had a few books by her (she's a Virago author), so it didn't take much to fill out my collection. I still have a few more books to find, but here's the bulk of them. I've heard a few stories about Molly Keane, an Anglo-Irish author, who published her first book in 1926 at the age of seventeen. One story goes she needed a little dress money, so she started writing books. Another story goes she didn't want her friends, who were of the hunting and having a good time set, to know she was writing, so she took the name M.J. Farrell as her pen name. And yet another story goes she took the name M.J. Farrell from the name of a pub she spotted driving home one day. She intrigues me. I've read a few Anglo-Irish authors and I find them fascinating. The whole history of the British aristocracy who also called Ireland their home is fascinating actually. It's a messy history with lots of different sides to it, and I'm curious to see what Molly has to say about it all.
So now Molly Keane has been added to my list of authors whose work I want to read. Here's what's in store:
The Knight of Cheerful Countenance (1926)
Young Entry (1928)
Taking Chances (1929)
Mad Puppetstown (1931)
Conversation Piece (1932)
Devoted Ladies (1934)
Full House (1935)
The Rising Tide (1937)
Two Days in Aragon (1941)
Loving Without Tears (1951)
Treasure Hunt (1952)
Good Behavior (1981)
Time After Time (1983)
Loving and Giving (1988)
This, like all my others, is a long term reading project. I would like to read her books in the order they were written. And I'd love to find a biography of her, if one exists. I love these little personal reading projects, and I can't wait to get started on this one.