"'Mary show me this sewing machine.'
'Kiss me.'
'The machine, Mary. The machine.'
'Kiss me.'
Mary upon him arms and legs. Back to the bed. Down. Please. You know how I feel about direct assault. What a tongue. All I wanted to do was take a look at the machine.'"

"JP Donleavy retrospective to open soon"

By John Armstrong

An exhibition of paintings and drawings by JP Donleavy, best known as the author of the scandalous 1955 novel The Ginger Man, opens in the Molesworth Gallery in Dublin on February 6th.

Donleavy, who celebrates his 80th birthday in April, was a painter before he became a novelist. He held his first exhibition, a one-man show, in the Prentice Gallery on St. Stephen's Green in Dublin in 1948 while still a student at Trinity College.

According to the catalogue note for the forthcoming exhibition by Bill Dunn, archivist of Donleavy's papers, Donleavy turned to writing in order to respond to the harsh criticism in the press, notably, The Irish Times, of his first exhibitions.

One of his early supporters in print was the scholar and critic Arland Ussher who praised his artistic work as reminiscent of Paul Klee and later wrote an introduction to the first UK edition of The Ginger Man.

Now an Irish citizen, Donleavy was born in New York City of Irish immigrant parents. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1944 and after the war entered TCD under the GI Bill, to study science. One of his fellow students was another young American, Gainor Crist, who inspired the character of Sebastian Dangerfield, the lecherous student who is the hero of The Ginger Man.

Donleavy had great difficulty finding a publisher for his book. The American publisher to whom it was first offered in 1952 rejected it on the grounds that it invited prosecution of obscenity.

Following a suggestion by his friend Brendan Behan, Donleavy sent the manuscript to Maurice Girodias of the Olympia Press in Paris, and it was published in 1955 in the pornographic Traveler's Companion series. Donleavy was disappointed with the categorisation, having expected inclusion in Olympia's more respectable Collection Merlin, whose writers included Samuel Beckett and Henry Miller.

Behan, the first person to read the manuscript of The Ginger Man, said of it: "This book of yours will go round the world and beat the bejasus out of the Bible." In the intervening years The Ginger Man has sold over 50 million copies in more than 20 languages, and has never been out of print.

Donleavy returned to the US for a short time in the early 1950s and later lived in London, writing and painting. He returned to Ireland in 1969, after his accountant told him about the tax-free scheme for artists introduced by the then finance minister, Charlie Haughey. He now lives in the midlands.

The work in the Molesworth Gallery exhibition covers all periods of his work as an artist. There are oil paintings, some from the 1940s and 1950s, and about 70 watercolours and sketches, including recent work. Prices will range for £700 to £2,450 for the watercolours and drawings, and from £4,000 to £7,500 for the oils.

A new portrait of Donleavy by Bobby Ballagh, to mark the author's 80th birthday, will be included in the exhibition.

To purchase books by J.P. Donleavy, go to the Buyers' Guide.