Ep. 153 - Who Were the Real Men in the Library from "Scylla and Charybdis"?
Eglinton knows Best.
Richard Irvine Best
Topics in this episode include the real-life versions of John Eglinton and Richard Best, Best’s contribution to the study of Irish mythology, how Best supported James Joyce’s abandoned music career, what his portrayal in Ulysses gets right and wrong, how the real Best felt about his fictional counterpart in Ulysses, gay-coding and homophobia in the fictional portrayal of Best, Oscar Wilde, the ancient Greeks, Joyce’s misguided attempt to re-connect with Best in 1909, William Kirkpatrick Magee (aka John Eglinton) and his contribution to Irish literature, Eglinton as an outsider, stories of Joyce and Gogarty terrorizing Eglinton, a rude limerick, the time Eglinton rejected Joyce’s Portrait, and Eglinton’s reaction to being portrayed in Ulysses.
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National Library of Ireland, November 2023
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Further Reading:
Allen, N. (Oct 2021). Magee, William Kirkpatrick. The Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved from https://www.dib.ie/biography/magee-william-kirkpatrick-john-eglinton-a5335
de Vere White, T. (1977). Richard Irvine Best and His Irish Literary Contemporaries. Irish University Review, 7(2), 168–183. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25477173
Ellmann, R. (1959). James Joyce. Oxford University Press.
Hourican, B. (2010, Jun 12). Ulysses in real life. The Irish Times. Retrieved from https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/ulysses-in-real-life-1.677580
Igoe, V. (2016). The real people of Joyce’s Ulysses: A biographical guide. University College Dublin Press.
Sayers, W. (2006). Best the Mythographer, Dinneen the Lexicographer: Muted Nationalism in “Scylla and Charybdis.” Papers on Joyce 12 (2006): 7-24. Retrieved from http://www.siff.us.es/iberjoyce/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/5-PoJ12-Sayers.pdf
Scott, B. K. (1975). John Eglinton: A Model for Joyce’s Individualism. James Joyce Quarterly, 12(4), 347–357. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25487210
Woods, C.J. (Oct 2009). Best, Richard Irvine. The Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved from https://www.dib.ie/biography/best-richard-irvine-a0635