William Trevor | |
|---|---|
| Born | William Trevor Cox (1928-05-24)24 May 1928 Mitchelstown, County Cork, Ireland |
| Died | 20 November 2016(2016-11-20) (aged 88) Crediton, Devon, England |
| Pen name | William Trevor |
| Occupation | Novelist, short story writer |
| Language | English |
| Citizenship | Irish[1][2][3][4] |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Dublin |
| Notable works | The Old Boys The Boarding House Mrs. Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel The Children of Dynmouth Fools of Fortune Two Lives Felicia's Journey The Story of Lucy Gault Love and Summer The Dressmaker's Child |
| Notable awards | Hawthornden Prize for Literature 1964 Whitbread Prize 2008 |
William Trevor CoxKBE (24 May 1928 – 20 November 2016), known by hispen nameWilliam Trevor, was anIrish novelist, playwright, and short story writer. One of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world,[5] he is widely regarded as one of the greatest contemporary writers of short stories in the English language.[6] Trevor won theWhitbread Prize three times and was nominated five times for theBooker Prize, the last for his novelLove and Summer (2009), which was also shortlisted for theInternational Dublin Literary Award in 2011. His name was also mentioned in relation to theNobel Prize in Literature.[7]
Trevor won the 2008International Nonino Prize in Italy. In 2014, he was bestowed with the title ofSaoi withinAosdána.[8] He resided in England from 1954 until his death in 2016, at the age of 88.[9]
He was born as William Trevor Cox inMitchelstown, County Cork, Ireland, to a middle-class,Anglo-IrishProtestant (Church of Ireland) family. He moved several times to other provincial locations, includingSkibbereen,Tipperary,[clarification needed]Youghal andEnniscorthy, as a result of his father's work as a bank official.
He was educated at a succession of schools includingSt Columba's College, Dublin (where he was taught byOisín Kelly) and atTrinity College Dublin, from which he received a degree in history. Trevor worked as a sculptor[10] under the name Trevor Cox[11] after he graduated from Trinity College, supplementing his income by teaching.
He married Jane Ryan in 1952 and emigrated to England, working as a teacher, a sculptor and then as acopywriter for an advertising agency. During this time he and his wife had their first son.[12] In 1952 he became an art teacher atBilton Grange, a prep school near Rugby. Trevor was commissioned to carve reliefs for several churches, including All Saints,Braunston,Northamptonshire. In 1956 he moved to Somerset to work as a sculptor[13] and carried out commissions for churches. He stopped wood carving in 1960.
His first novel,A Standard of Behaviour, was published in 1958 (by Hutchinson of London), but received little critical success. He later disowned this work, and, according to his obituary inThe Irish Times, "refused to have it republished".[12] It was, in fact, republished in 1982 and in 1989.
In 1964, at the age of 36, Trevor was awarded theHawthornden Prize forThe Old Boys. This success encouraged Trevor to become a full-time writer.
In 1971, he and his family moved from London toDevon inSouth West England, first toDunkeswell, then in 1980 toShobrooke, where he lived until his death. Despite having spent most of his life in England, he considered himself to be "Irish in every vein".[14]
William Trevor died peacefully in his sleep on 20 November 2016. He was 88 years old.[15][16]
He wrote several collections of short stories that were well-received. His short stories often follow aChekhovian pattern. The characters in Trevor's work are typically marginalized members of society: children, the elderly, single middle-aged men and women, or the unhappily married. Those who cannot accept the reality of their lives create their own alternative worlds into which they retreat. A number of the stories useGothic elements to explore the nature of evil and its connection to madness. Trevor acknowledged the influence ofJames Joyce on his short-story writing, and "the odour of ashpits and old weeds and offal" can be detected in his work,[citation needed] but the overall impression is not of gloominess, since, particularly in his early work, the author's wry humour offers the reader a tragicomic version of the world. He adapted much of his work for stage, television and radio. In 1990,Fools of Fortune was made into a film directed byPat O'Connor, followed by a1999 film adaptation ofFelicia's Journey, which was directed byAtom Egoyan.
Trevor set his stories in both England and Ireland; they range from black comedies to tales based on Irish history and politics. A common theme is the tension betweenProtestant (usuallyChurch of Ireland) landowners andCatholic tenants. His early books are peopled by eccentrics who speak in a pedantically formal manner and engage in hilariously comic activities that are recounted by a detached narrative voice. Instead of one central figure, the novels feature several protagonists of equal importance, drawn together by an institutional setting, which acts as a convergence point for their individual stories. The later novels are thematically and technically more complex. The operation ofgrace in the world is explored, and several narrative voices are used to view the same events from different angles.Unreliable narrators and different perspectives reflect the fragmentation and uncertainty of modern life. Trevor also explored the decaying institution of the "Big House" in his novelsFools of Fortune andThe Story of Lucy Gault.[citation needed]
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Trevor was a member of the Irish Academy of Letters andAosdána. He was awarded anhonorary CBE in 1977 for "services to literature", and was made aCompanion of Literature in 1994.[17] In 2002 he received anhonorary KBE in recognition of his services to literature.[18] He won the 2008International Nonino Prize in Italy.
Trevor was nominated for theBooker Prize five times, making the shortlist in 1970, 1976, 1991 and 2002, and the longlist in 2009.[19] He won theWhitbread Prize three times and theHawthornden Prize once.[20]
Since 2002, when non-American authors became eligible to compete for theO. Henry Award, Trevor won the award four times, for his storiesSacred Statues (2002),The Dressmaker's Child (2006),The Room (2007), a juror favourite of that year, andFolie à Deux (2008).
Trevor was shortlisted for theInternational Dublin Literary Award in 2011.[21]
A monument to William Trevor was unveiled in Trevor's nativeMitchelstown on 25 August 2004. It is a bronze sculpture by Liam Lavery and Eithne Ring in the form of a lectern, with an open book incorporating an image of the writer and a quotation, as well as the titles of his threeWhitbread Prize-winning works, and two others of significance.[citation needed]
On 23 May 2008, the eve of his 80th birthday, a commemorative plaque, indicating the house on Upper Cork Street, Mitchelstown, where Trevor was born, was unveiled by Louis McRedmond.[citation needed]
 |
| Title | Year | First published in | Reprinted/collected in | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The third party | 1986 | Trevor, William (14 April 1986). "The third party".The New Yorker. Vol. 62, no. 8. pp. 35–44. | ||
| The women | 2013 | Trevor, William (14 January 2013)."The women".The New Yorker. |
