A.J. Cronin
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "A.J._Cronin".

content
A. J. Cronin

Born Archibald Joseph Cronin
19 July 1896(1896-07-19)
Cardross, Scotland
Died 6 January 1981
Montreux, Switzerland
Occupation M.D., Writer

Archibald Joseph Cronin (19 July 1896–6 January 1981) was a Scottish novelist, dramatist, and non-fiction writer who was one of the most renowned storytellers of the twentieth century. His best-known works are The Citadel and The Keys of the Kingdom, both of which were made into Oscar-nominated films. He also created the Dr. Finlay character, the hero of a series of stories that served as the basis for the long-running BBC television and radio series entitled Dr. Finlay's Casebook.

Contents

Early life

Rosebank Cottage, Cronin's birthplace
Rosebank Cottage, Cronin's birthplace

Cronin was born at Rosebank Cottage in Cardross, Dunbartonshire, the only child of a Protestant mother, Jessie Cronin, and a Catholic father, Patrick Cronin, and would later write of young men from similarly mixed backgrounds. His paternal grandparents owned a public house in Alexandria. His maternal grandfather, Archibald Montgomerie, was a hatter who owned a shop in Dumbarton. After their marriage, Cronin's parents moved to Helensburgh, where he attended Grant Street School. When he was seven years old, his father, a commercial traveller, died from tuberculosis. He and his mother moved back to her parents’ home in Dumbarton, and she soon became the first female public health inspector in Scotland.

Cronin was not only a precocious student at Dumbarton Academy who won many prizes and writing competitions, but an excellent athlete and footballer. From an early age, he was an avid golfer, a sport he enjoyed throughout his life, and he loved salmon fishing as well. The family later moved to Yorkhill, Glasgow, where he attended St. Aloysius' College. Due to his exceptional abilities, he was awarded a scholarship to study medicine at the University of Glasgow in 1914. He was absent during the 1916-1917 session for naval service and graduated with highest honours in 1919, being awarded an M.B. and a Ch.B.. Cronin went on to earn additional degrees, including a Diploma in Public Health (1923) and his MRCP (1924). In 1925, he was awarded an M.D. from the University of Glasgow for his dissertation, entitled "The History of Aneurysm."

Medical career

Cronin served as a Royal Navy surgeon during World War I before graduating from medical school. After the war, he trained at various hospitals before taking up his first practice in Tredegar, a mining town in South Wales. In 1924, he was appointed Medical Inspector of Mines for Great Britain, and over the next few years, his survey of medical regulations in collieries and his reports on the correlation between coal dust inhalation and pulmonary disease were published. Cronin drew on his experiences researching the occupational hazards of the mining industry for his later novels The Citadel, set in Wales, and The Stars Look Down, set in Northumberland. He subsequently moved to Bayswater, London and opened his own medical practice at 152 Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill, which was put up for sale in 2007, before starting another thriving practice on Harley Street. Cronin was also the medical officer for Whiteleys at this time and was becoming increasingly interested in opthalmology.

Writing career

Dr. Cronin with his wife, May, and sons, Andrew, Vincent, and Patrick, at their Storrington country home in 1938
Dr. Cronin with his wife, May, and sons, Andrew, Vincent, and Patrick, at their Storrington country home in 1938

In 1930, while on holiday at Dalchenna Farm in Inveraray, Cronin wrote his lengthy first novel, Hatter's Castle, in the span of three months. It was quickly accepted by Gollancz, the only publishing house to which the manuscript had been submitted. The novel was a great success, launching his career as a prolific author, and he never returned to practicing medicine.

Many of Cronin's books were bestsellers which were translated into numerous languages. His strengths included his narrative skill and his powers of acute observation and graphic description. Although noted for its deep social conscience, his work is filled with colorful characters and witty dialogue. Some of his stories draw on his medical career, dramatically mixing realism, romance, and social criticism. In addition to stressing the need for tolerance, Cronin's works examine moral conflicts between the individual and society as his idealistic heroes pursue justice for the common man.

The Citadel incited the establishment of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom by exposing the inequity and incompetence of medical practice at the time. Not only were the author's pioneering ideas instrumental in the creation of the NHS, but the popularity of his novels played a substantial role in the Labour Party's landslide 1945 victory.[1]Cronin also contributed a large number of stories and essays to various magazines.

Family

It was at university that he met his future wife, Agnes Mary Gibson, who was also a medical student. May was the daughter of Robert Gibson, a master baker, and Agnes Thomson Gibson (née Gilchrist) of Hamilton, Lanarkshire. She and Cronin married on 31 August 1921. As a doctor, May helped her husband with research and worked in the dispensary while he was employed by the Tredegar General Hospital, and she also assisted him with his practice in London. When he became an author, she would proofread his manuscripts. Their first son, Vincent, was born in Tredegar in 1924. Their second son, Patrick, was born in London in 1926. Andrew, their youngest son, was born in London in 1937.

In the late 1930s Cronin moved to the United States with his family, living in Bel Air, California and Greenwich, Connecticut before eventually settling in New Canaan. Cronin also had homes on the French Riviera and in Bermuda, and summered in Blue Hill, Maine.

Later years

Ultimately, Cronin returned to Europe, residing in Lucerne and Montreux, Switzerland for the last twenty-five years of his life and continuing to write into his eighties. He included among his friends Laurence Olivier, Audrey Hepburn, and Charlie Chaplin. He died on 6 January 1981 in Montreux, and is interred at La Tour-de-Peilz. Many of Cronin's writings, including published and unpublished literary manuscripts, drafts, letters, school exercise books and essays, laboratory books, and his M.D. thesis, are held at the National Library of Scotland.[2]

Honors

Bibliography

Selected periodical publications

  • "The Most Unforgettable Character I Ever Met: The Doctor of Lennox," Reader's Digest, 35 (September 1939): 26-30.
  • "Turning Point of My Career," Reader's Digest, 38 (May 1941): 53-57.
  • "Diogenes in Maine," Reader's Digest, 39 (August 1941): 11-13.
  • "Reward of Mercy," Reader's Digest, 39 (September 1941): 25-37.
  • "How I Came to Write a Novel of a Priest," Life, 11 (20 October 1941): 64-66.
  • "Drama in Everyday Life," Reader's Digest, 42 (March 1943): 83-86.
  • "Candles in Vienna," Reader's Digest, 48 (June 1946): 1-3.
  • "Star of Hope Still Rises," Reader's Digest, 53 (December 1948): 1-3.
  • "Johnny Brown Stays Here," Reader's Digest, 54 (January 1949): 9-12.
  • "Two Gentlemen of Verona," Reader's Digest, 54 (February 1949): 1-5.
  • "Greater Gift," Reader's Digest, 54 (March 1949): 88-91.
  • "Irish Rose," Reader's Digest, 56 (January 1950): 21-24.
  • "Monsieur le Maire," Reader's Digest, 58 (January 1951): 52-56.
  • "Best Investment I Ever Made," Reader's Digest, 58 (March 1951): 25-28.
  • "Quo Vadis?," Reader's Digest, 59 (December 1951): 41-44.
  • "Tombstone for Nora Malone," Reader's Digest, 60 (January 1952): 99-101.
  • "When You Dread Failure," Reader's Digest, 60 (February 1952): 21-24.
  • "What I Learned at La Grande Chartreuse," Reader's Digest, 62 (February 1953): 73-77.
  • "Grace of Gratitude," Reader's Digest, 62 (March 1953): 67-70.
  • "Thousand and One Lives," Reader's Digest, 64 (January 1954): 8-11.
  • "How to Stop Worrying," Reader's Digest, 64 (May 1954): 47-50.
  • "Don't Be Sorry for Yourself!," Reader's Digest, 66 (February 1955): 97-100.
  • "Unless You Deny Yourself," Reader's Digest, 68 (January 1956): 54-56.
  • "Resurrection of Joao Jacinto," Reader's Digest, 89 (November 1966): 153-157.[3]

Film adaptations

Selected television credits

Selected radio credits

Further reading

  • Salwak, Dale. A. J. Cronin. Boston: Twayne's English Authors Series, 1985. ISBN 080576884X

References

  1. ^ R. Samuel, "North and South," London Review of Books 17.12 (22 June 1995): 3-6.
  2. ^ National Library of Scotland - Manuscript Collections
  3. ^ Dictionary of Literary Biography

External links

‎

v • d • e
Works by A. J. Cronin
Novels
Selected Short Stories
& Story Collections
Play
Autobiography
UK/US Film Adaptations
Television Adaptations
Persondata
NAME Cronin, A. J.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Archibald Joseph Cronin
SHORT DESCRIPTION M.D., Writer
DATE OF BIRTH July 19, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Cardross, Scotland
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1981
PLACE OF DEATH Montreux, Switzerland
© jGames.co.uk 2007 (some content from Wikipedia under GDL ) !-- ValueClick Media 468x60 and 728x90 Banner CODE for jgames.co.uk -->
Your Ad Here