Author: Banim, John
Biography:
BANIM, John (1798-1842: ODNB)
Irish novelist and playwright born on 3 Apr. in Kilkenny, Ireland, younger brother of Michael Banim (q.v.). Their father owned a gun and tackle shop. He had a good education and graduated from the drawing academy of the Royal Dublin Society after obtaining the top prize in his first year. He worked at first as a drawing-master but from 1820 earned his living as a newspaper editor and freelance writer of plays, essays, poetry, and prose fiction in Dublin and London. After marrying Ellen Ruth in Kilkenny on 27 Feb. 1822, he moved to London and began the close collaboration with his brother on the series of national tales, Tales of the O'Hara Family, that would bring them international acclaim. The couple had three children but two sons died in infancy and the remaining daughter, Mary, outlived her father only two years. A progressive disease of the spine made him increasingly an invalid; his doctors in vain sent him to France in 1829 to convalesce. An initial application to the RLF in 1830 was rejected, in part because the Banims were living abroad, but later applications by Ellen Banim were successful. The poverty and distress of the family were further alleviated by subscriptions organized by literary friends and a government pension. Banim was welcomed home to Ireland in 1835 and died in Kilkenny on 13 Aug. 1842. A biography by Patrick Joseph Murray with the assistance of Michael Banim, The Life of John Banim, appeared in 1857. (ODNB; Wikipedia 6 Nov. 2017; DIB 11 Jan 2023; RLF #674)