St. John Greer Ervine

Ervine, St John [Greer], born John Irvine (1883-1971), dramatist and novelist. The son of deaf-mutes in east Belfast, he moved to London, joining the Fabian Society out of admiration for George Bernard Shaw. His first play, Mixed Marriage (1911), a study of bigotry in his native city, was produced at the Abbey Theatre after a meeting with W. B. Yeats, and in 1915 he became manager of the theatre. During his time there he directed his own play, John Ferguson (1915), a study in Presbyterian rectitude, before his conflict with the company caused him to join the Dublin Fusiliers. He lost a leg from wounds in France and settled in Devon. Throughout the 1920s he wrote ephemeral West End comedies such as Anthony and Anna (1926) and The First Mrs. Fraser (1926). Of his realistic Belfast fiction one novel, The Foolish Lovers (1920), tells of a young man's affair with a policeman's wife, while another, The Wayward Man (1927), deals with low-life experience in New York. The plays Boyd's Shop (1936) and Friends and Relations (1941) present a warmer picture of his province.

St. John Greer Ervine (1883 - January 24, 1971 in London) was an Irish author, writer, critic and dramatist. He wrote the plays Anthony and Anna in 1926 and The First Mrs. Fraser in 1929. He was born in Belfast, Ireland but moved to London while in his teens. His 1956 biography George Bernard Shaw was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

See also

• List of Northern Irish writers

External links

• Works by St. John Greer Ervine at Project Gutenberg
• Extended profile

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