biography
| name: |
O'Hara, John (Henry)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1905–70)
|
| biography:
| Writer, born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, USA. He attended the Niagara Preparatory School (Niagara Falls, NY), and then worked as a reporter in Pottsville (1924–6), and held a variety of other jobs, such as steel worker and gas meter reader. He moved to New York City where he worked as a film critic and, using the name of Franey Delaney, as a radio commentator. He was a newspaper editor in Pittsburgh before becoming a press agent for Warner Brothers in Hollywood and a screen writer (1934–45). He later settled in Princeton, NJ. A keen observer of the social habits and possessions of his time, he wrote entertaining novels about the sexual exploits and struggles of the upper-middle-class, but never fully gained the critical respect he craved. Appointment in Samarra (1934) was his first successful novel, followed by others such as Butterfield 8 (1935), and Ten North Frederick (1955). Another work, Pal Joey (1940), became a popular musical. |
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