Dublin: A Writer's City(Imagining Cities)

The words of its writers are part of the texture of Dublin, an invisible counterpart to the bricks and pavement we see around us. Beyond the ever-present footsteps of James Joyce's characters, Leopold Bloom or Stephen Dedalus, around the city centre, an ordinary-looking residential street overlooking Dublin Bay, for instance, presents the house where Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney lived for many years; a few blocks away is the house where another Nobel Laureate, W. B. Yeats, was born.  Just down the coast is the pier linked to yet another, Samuel Beckett, from which we can see the Martello Tower that is the setting for the opening chapter of Ulysses. But these are only a few. Step-by-step, Dublin: A Writer's City unfolds a book-lover's map of this unique city, inviting us to experience what it means to live in a great city of literature.  The book is heavily illustrated, and features custom maps.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: the imagined city in time of pandemic; 1. Mapping the city; 2. Baggotonia; 3. Around St. Stephen's Green; 4. Trinity College; 5. Around the Liberties; 6. O'Connell Street and the Abbey Theatre; 7. The north inner city; 8. South Dublin; 9. The south coast; 10. North Dublin; 11. Riverrun.

About the Author :
Chris Morash has published widely on Irish studies, with books on Irish Famine literature, Irish theatre history, media history, and spatial theory; he has collaborated with the Abbey Theatre, and chairs the judging panel for the Dublin Literary Award, one of the world's richest literary prizes.

Review :
'Dublin: A Writer's City is a comprehensive guide to this incomprehensibly graphomane capital, less city than town, less town than village, less village than inkpot. Christopher Morash's book is engrossing, enlightening, relaxedly scholarly and splendidly entertaining.' John Banville 'Here is the Dublin I know and love. This is an invaluable guide to a living, changing city; one that is rich in stories as well as books. Moving lightly from the deep past to the present day, Christopher Morash has managed to be affectionate, accurate and comprehensive, all at once.' Anne Enright '… a fitting tribute to the rich literary history of Dublin.' Publishers Weekly 'We often think of literary giants such as Oscar Wilde, WB Yeats, James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, but while Chris Morash's new book explores the contributions of these behemoths, it also goes much further. It takes us by the hand from Dublin's elegant Georgian facades down back alleys to hear the hundreds of pamphleteers, poets and playwrights chattering incessantly back and forth across the centuries.' Elizabeth O'Neill, Sunday Business Post '… a fascinating new book, Dublin: A Writer's City...brilliantly joins up the jigsaw of the lives that different generations of Dublin writers lived … If you want a book that pieces together Behan's inner city, Eavan Boland's Dundrum, Roddy Doyle's fictional Barrytown or the Howth heather where Molly Bloom said yes, then Morash's book is a joy to dip into and see familiar places revealed in a fresh light.' Dermot Bolder, Dublin Evening Herald 'Dublin, a Writer's City manages to be compendious in a small space, busy as the streets themselves and true to the remarkable spirit of a town that insists, decade after decade, a century ago and next year, in nurturing, goading and facilitating some of the most vibrant literature to be found in the English-speaking world (an unfashionable opinion … Moving into the 21st century, it respects a living tradition and brings us a crucial step further along.' Anne Enright, The Irish Times 'A wonderfully rich account of the Irish capital's impressive writerly heritage … the book is lavishly illustrated with numerous unfamiliar images from the archives, and is itself written in a beautiful style that adds to the very literary culture that the author seeks to celebrate.' James Moran, The Tablet '… the one word that quintessentially sums up Dublin – A Writer's City is inspiring.' David Marx, David Marx:Book Reviews