Brendan Lynch

Prodigals and Geniuses: the Writers and Artists of Dublin's Baggotonia Brendan Lynch

London has Fitzrovia; Paris its Left Bank. But Georgian Dublin boasts an equally atmospheric Bohemian quarter. Centered on Baggot and Leeson Streets, and girdled by the Grand Canal, it is the unmapped village of writers, artists, and ne'er-do-wells, which in the 1950s became known as Baggotonia. Its inhabitants and habitus include four winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature and nearly every nineteenth and twentieth century Irish writer of note - not to mention the many painters who resided there. Based on interviews and contemporary accounts, Prodigals and Geniuses is an entertaining and enlightening history of a remarkable time and place. ""Supports growth in Irish studies by extending understanding of the spaces and relationship s that fueled Dublin's artistic dynamism throughout the twentieth century.""--Irish Literary Supplement Fall 2013