Herminie Templeton Kavanagh (6 May 1861 – 30 October 1933) was an Irish writer, most known for her short stories.
Early life and family
Born Minnie Allen McGibney at the British army barracks in Aldershot, England, on 6 May 1861, she was the second of seven children born to Major George McGibney from Templemichael, County Longford, Ireland, and Caroline Allen from Coventry, England.
The family moved to Quebec, Canada in 1872. By 1880 Minnie lived in Manhattan with her widowed mother and six siblings and worked as a sales clerk.
Her first marriage was to vaudeville performer John Templeton. An article in the Chicago Tribune later stated that she had been abandoned by her first husband in Chicago circa 1893. After their separation, Minnie worked in Chicago as a clerk and stenographer. She adopted the name Herminie some time before 1900, and published her first writing in 1901.
She became Herminie Templeton Kavanagh after her second marriage, to Marcus Kavanagh (1859–1937), who was born in the United States to Irish immigrants, and who served as a Cook County judge in Chicago from 1898 to 1935. Accounts differ on how they met, as well as where and when they married, ranging from 1905 to 1908 in Dublin or Iowa.
She and Judge Kavanagh lived together in Chicago and Ocean Grove, New Jersey.
Works
Her best known work, Darby O'Gill and the Good People (ISBN 0-9666701-0-8), was first published as a series of stories under the name Herminie Templeton in McClure's magazine in 1901–1902, before being published as a book in the United States in 1903. A second edition, published a year before her death, was under the name Herminie T. Kavanagh. The Good People in the title refers to the fairies in Irish mythology; the English translation of aoine maithe is good people.
Her second published book, Ashes of Old Wishes and Other Darby O'Gill Tales (ISBN 0-8369-4018-0), was published in 1926. In 1959, Walt Disney released a film based on these two books, called Darby O'Gill and the Little People.
She also wrote two plays, The Color Sergeant (1903), and Swift-Wing of the Cherokee (1903).
Death
She died of a heart ailment in Chicago on 30 October 1933, aged 72. She was buried in New York, her former home.
Notes
References
Further reading
- American Women Playwrights, 1900–1930. A checklist. Compiled by Frances Diodato Bzowski. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1992.
- Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature. A checklist, 1700–1974. Volume 1. By R. Reginald. Detroit: Gale Research, 1979.
External links
- Works by Herminie Templeton Kavanagh in eBook form at Standard Ebooks
- Works by or about Herminie Templeton Kavanagh at the Internet Archive
- An archived page listing two plays by Mrs. Kavanagh at the Wayback Machine (archived 23 May 2000)
