Daniel O'Connell (journalist)
Encyclopedia
Daniel O'Connell was a poet, actor, writer and journalist in San Francisco, California
, and a co-founder of the Bohemian Club
. He was the grand-nephew of Daniel O'Connell
(1775–1847), the famed Irish orator and politician.
O'Connell's strict classics
-oriented education in Ireland stood him in good stead for his early career choices of teacher and journalist. In San Francisco, he formed friendships with artists and influential men who joined with him in presenting and promoting theatrical productions and in publishing books and newspapers. He wrote short stories for magazines and journals, and lived a life rich in food, drink, and the arts. A dedicated family man in America, O'Connell never lost his Irish poet's sense of overarching sadness joined with keen pleasure in the sensations of the physical world.
, a Jesuit school in Dublin, but was called home at the deaths of his mother and sister in a coach accident. This tragic event was later judged to be the source of O'Connell's sense of the impermanence of the world. After the funeral, he was transferred without enthusiasm to Clongowes Wood College
where he studied the classics for three years. O'Connell signed on with the Royal Navy
as a midshipman. He traveled around Cape Horn
to California in 1868.
After disembarking in San Francisco, O'Connell took a position as professor of belles-lettres
at Santa Clara College
, then accepted an offer from St. Ignatius College
in San Francisco to teach Greek.
. He edited the Morning Herald, the San Francisco Times, the Bulletin, the Chronicle
, the Wasp, the Bohemian and the Portico. He helped Henry George
found the San Francisco Daily Evening Post in 1871. His best work includes "The Thrust in Tierce," a short story written for the Overland Monthly
, and a yearly Christmas piece, "quaint, grotesque or poetical" usually describing the serio-comic antics of would-be San Francisco aristocrats with little claim to fame.
later wrote that the Bohemian membership of some of his employees was "not an unmixed blessing" because the "boys would go there sometimes when they should have reported at the office." De Young said that "very often" when O'Connell sat down to a good dinner, "he would forget that he had a pocketful of notes for an important story."
"Dan," as he was called by his friends, was a very active Bohemian, and was described as the "Prince of the club" when he wasn't being toasted as "the rightful King of Munster
." O'Connell took part in many Bohemian poetry readings and stage plays, including a turn as King Macbeth of Scotland
in the witches' scene from Macbeth
. O'Connell was the first member to formally announce an upcoming "Jinks" (literary and musical performance)—his turn at host, or "Sire", of an evening's entertainment took place November 30, 1872 with the stated theme of "Tom Moore
and Offenbach
." The Jinks events at the club were usually cheerful and sometimes boisterous. One of O'Connell's Jinks announcements joked that the "opening discordancy" of the presentation would be played by the Bohemian Club's own musicians, "who have done so much to lower the rents in this neighborhood."
In 1876, O'Connell wrote the preface and edited a book of stories by William Henry Rhodes
(a Bohemian who wrote under the pen-name "Caxton") entitled Caxton's Book. In 1878, O'Connell worked for The Mail, an early newspaper in San Francisco. With his adroit editing, O'Connell helped make famous the "Town Crier" column for the San Francisco News Letter, written by Ambrose Bierce
, then by Ashton Stevens
.
In 1881, O'Connell published Lyrics, a book of poetry evincing a "Celtic strain." The poetry displays O'Connell's sense of sunt lacrimae rerum
, that there will be tears with trials, and it expresses his bittersweet joy in life's evanescent pleasures. O'Connell wrote an Irish-themed play, The Red Fox, which was staged with moderate success in San Francisco about 1882. O'Connell wrote "Ghoul's Quest" for The Argonaut
. In 1891, he published The Inner Man: Good Things to Eat and Drink and Where to Get Them, a collection of anecdotes and advice for the epicurean who finds himself in the San Francisco area, and a cautionary description of common 19th century food adulterants such as chemical dyes and powdered lead
.
O'Connell wrote the libretto for a romantic opera entitled Bluff King Hal, working with fellow Bohemian Club member Humphrey John Stewart
who composed the music. The opera was performed at San Francisco's Grand Opera House in 1892, with artist and Bohemian Amedee Joullin designing the costumes and painting the scenery, and architect and Bohemian Willis Polk
modeling and designing the scenery.
O'Connell was elected honorary life member of the Bohemian Club in the late 1890s and was made club historian.
Delos R. Ashley
who had died the previous year. The marriage produced seven children. The O'Connell marriage was described by a close friend as a perfect union, "with kindred tastes and boy-and-girl love." With seven children who adored their father, the O'Connell home became a "small world where love reigned." Gipsy O'Connell, one of the daughters, later expressed that her favorite of her father's poems was "Sing Me A Ringing Anthem" from Lyrics.
that turned into pneumonia
. The New York Times
published an obituary and printed a quatrain
by the Australian poet Adam Lindsay Gordon
incorrectly stating that it was one of O'Connell's:
In 1900, Ina Coolbrith
, Bohemian Club librarian, edited a collection of O'Connell's poetry, entitled Songs from Bohemia, copyrighted to Mabel Ashley O'Connell. Coolbrith ended the book with "The Chamber of Sleep", the last poem by O'Connell, written ten days before his death. William Greer Harrison wrote in a memorial foreword that O'Connell was an avid outdoorsman of eternally sunny disposition. He mentioned his appreciation for good food and his fine chef's skill in delicate cookery. Harrison wrote of his flair for swordsmanship and his pleasure in fishing, and noted that during any of these activities, O'Connell could be seen pausing to write down on a scrap of paper an idea for a story.
Mabel Ashley O'Connell died of grief a year after her husband. Harrison wrote that she "lingered here only long enough to say farewell to her many friends, and then joined her husband in the land that is hidden from material eyes, where love and life are one."
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and a co-founder of the Bohemian Club
Bohemian Club
The Bohemian Club is a private men's club in San Francisco, California, United States.Its clubhouse is located at 624 Taylor Street in San Francisco...
. He was the grand-nephew of Daniel O'Connell
Daniel O'Connell
Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847; often referred to as The Liberator, or The Emancipator, was an Irish political leader in the first half of the 19th century...
(1775–1847), the famed Irish orator and politician.
O'Connell's strict classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
-oriented education in Ireland stood him in good stead for his early career choices of teacher and journalist. In San Francisco, he formed friendships with artists and influential men who joined with him in presenting and promoting theatrical productions and in publishing books and newspapers. He wrote short stories for magazines and journals, and lived a life rich in food, drink, and the arts. A dedicated family man in America, O'Connell never lost his Irish poet's sense of overarching sadness joined with keen pleasure in the sensations of the physical world.
Early career
O'Connell was born to distinguished lawyer Charles O'Connell in 1849 in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, some two years after the death of his famed grand-uncle Daniel O'Connell. Young O'Connell attended Belvedere CollegeBelvedere College
Belvedere College SJ is a private secondary school for boys located on Great Denmark Street, Dublin, Ireland. It is also known as St. Francis Xavier's College....
, a Jesuit school in Dublin, but was called home at the deaths of his mother and sister in a coach accident. This tragic event was later judged to be the source of O'Connell's sense of the impermanence of the world. After the funeral, he was transferred without enthusiasm to Clongowes Wood College
Clongowes Wood College
Clongowes Wood College is a voluntary secondary boarding school for boys, located near Clane in County Kildare, Ireland. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1814, it is one of Ireland's oldest Catholic schools, and featured prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the...
where he studied the classics for three years. O'Connell signed on with the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
as a midshipman. He traveled around Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
to California in 1868.
After disembarking in San Francisco, O'Connell took a position as professor of belles-lettres
Belles-lettres
Belles-lettres or belles lettres is a term that is used to describe a category of writing. A writer of belles-lettres is a belletrist. However, the boundaries of that category vary in different usages....
at Santa Clara College
Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University is a private, not-for-profit, Jesuit-affiliated university located in Santa Clara, California, United States. Chartered by the state of California and accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, it operates in collaboration with the Society of Jesus , whose...
, then accepted an offer from St. Ignatius College
University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco , is a private, Jesuit/Catholic university located in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1855, USF was established as the first university in San Francisco. It is the second oldest institution for higher learning in California and the tenth-oldest university of...
in San Francisco to teach Greek.
Writer
O'Connell worked for a number of periodicals in the San Francisco Bay AreaSan Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
. He edited the Morning Herald, the San Francisco Times, the Bulletin, the Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
, the Wasp, the Bohemian and the Portico. He helped Henry George
Henry George
Henry George was an American writer, politician and political economist, who was the most influential proponent of the land value tax, also known as the "single tax" on land...
found the San Francisco Daily Evening Post in 1871. His best work includes "The Thrust in Tierce," a short story written for the Overland Monthly
Overland Monthly
Overland Monthly was a monthly magazine based in California, United States, and published in the 19th and 20th century.The magazine's first issue was in July 1868, and continued until the late 1875. The original publishers, in 1880, started The Californian, which became The Californian and Overland...
, and a yearly Christmas piece, "quaint, grotesque or poetical" usually describing the serio-comic antics of would-be San Francisco aristocrats with little claim to fame.
Bohemian Club
In 1872 with a group of other Chronicle newspaper staffers, O'Connell helped form the Bohemian Club. At first, the group rented a modest room as their clubhouse, and spent many evenings enjoying food, drink, music and the literary arts. Chronicle publisher M. H. de YoungM. H. de Young
Michael Henry de Young was an American journalist and businessman.-Life and career:De Young was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Amelia and Miechel de Young , who was a jeweler and dry-goods merchant. The family was Jewish, of Dutch Jewish descent...
later wrote that the Bohemian membership of some of his employees was "not an unmixed blessing" because the "boys would go there sometimes when they should have reported at the office." De Young said that "very often" when O'Connell sat down to a good dinner, "he would forget that he had a pocketful of notes for an important story."
"Dan," as he was called by his friends, was a very active Bohemian, and was described as the "Prince of the club" when he wasn't being toasted as "the rightful King of Munster
Kings of Munster
The name Munster is derived from the Gaelic God, Muman. The province of Munster was once divided into six regions: Tuadh Mhuman , Des Mhuman , Aur/Ur Mumhan , Iar mumhan or Iarmuman , Ernaibh Muman , and Deisi Muman...
." O'Connell took part in many Bohemian poetry readings and stage plays, including a turn as King Macbeth of Scotland
Macbeth of Scotland
Mac Bethad mac Findlaích was King of the Scots from 1040 until his death...
in the witches' scene from Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
. O'Connell was the first member to formally announce an upcoming "Jinks" (literary and musical performance)—his turn at host, or "Sire", of an evening's entertainment took place November 30, 1872 with the stated theme of "Tom Moore
Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore was an Irish poet, singer, songwriter, and entertainer, now best remembered for the lyrics of The Minstrel Boy and The Last Rose of Summer. He was responsible, with John Murray, for burning Lord Byron's memoirs after his death...
and Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
." The Jinks events at the club were usually cheerful and sometimes boisterous. One of O'Connell's Jinks announcements joked that the "opening discordancy" of the presentation would be played by the Bohemian Club's own musicians, "who have done so much to lower the rents in this neighborhood."
In 1876, O'Connell wrote the preface and edited a book of stories by William Henry Rhodes
William Henry Rhodes
William Henry Rhodes is known for his short story, The Case of Summerfield, which appeared in 1871 in a San Francisco newspaper under the pseudonym Caxton.-Early years:...
(a Bohemian who wrote under the pen-name "Caxton") entitled Caxton's Book. In 1878, O'Connell worked for The Mail, an early newspaper in San Francisco. With his adroit editing, O'Connell helped make famous the "Town Crier" column for the San Francisco News Letter, written by Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist...
, then by Ashton Stevens
Ashton Stevens
Ashton P Stevens was an American drama critic. His newspaper column appeared in the San Francisco Examiner and later in the Chicago Herald-American...
.
In 1881, O'Connell published Lyrics, a book of poetry evincing a "Celtic strain." The poetry displays O'Connell's sense of sunt lacrimae rerum
Lacrimae rerum
Lacrimae rerum is the Latin for "tears of things." The words themselves are from "lacrima, -ae," a first declension noun meaning "tear" and from "res, rei" a fifth declension noun meaning "thing" .The term comes from line 462 of Book I of The Aeneid, an epic poem written in Latin by Virgil, one...
, that there will be tears with trials, and it expresses his bittersweet joy in life's evanescent pleasures. O'Connell wrote an Irish-themed play, The Red Fox, which was staged with moderate success in San Francisco about 1882. O'Connell wrote "Ghoul's Quest" for The Argonaut
The Argonaut
The Argonaut was a literary journal based in San Francisco, California that ran from 1877 to 1893, founded and published by Frank M. Pixley. The magazine was known for containing strong political Americanism combined with art and literature...
. In 1891, he published The Inner Man: Good Things to Eat and Drink and Where to Get Them, a collection of anecdotes and advice for the epicurean who finds himself in the San Francisco area, and a cautionary description of common 19th century food adulterants such as chemical dyes and powdered lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
.
O'Connell wrote the libretto for a romantic opera entitled Bluff King Hal, working with fellow Bohemian Club member Humphrey John Stewart
Humphrey John Stewart
Humphrey John Stewart was an American composer and organist, born in England. A native of London, he came to the United States in 1886, and served for many years as a church organist on the West Coast. In 1898, he was awarded an a doctorate degree in music from the University of the Pacific...
who composed the music. The opera was performed at San Francisco's Grand Opera House in 1892, with artist and Bohemian Amedee Joullin designing the costumes and painting the scenery, and architect and Bohemian Willis Polk
Willis Polk
Willis Jefferson Polk was an American architect best known for his work in San Francisco, California.-Life:He was born in Jacksonville, Illinois and was related to United States President James Polk....
modeling and designing the scenery.
O'Connell was elected honorary life member of the Bohemian Club in the late 1890s and was made club historian.
Personal life
In 1874, O'Connell married Annie Ashley, called Mabel, the daughter of California SenatorCalifornia State Senate
The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature. There are 40 state senators. The state legislature meets in the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The Lieutenant Governor is the ex officio President of the Senate and may break a tied vote...
Delos R. Ashley
Delos R. Ashley
Delos Rodeyn Ashley was a California and Nevada politician. He served on the California State Assembly, 3rd District, 1854-56. He later went to the California state senate, 1856–57 and would become California State Treasurer, 1862-63...
who had died the previous year. The marriage produced seven children. The O'Connell marriage was described by a close friend as a perfect union, "with kindred tastes and boy-and-girl love." With seven children who adored their father, the O'Connell home became a "small world where love reigned." Gipsy O'Connell, one of the daughters, later expressed that her favorite of her father's poems was "Sing Me A Ringing Anthem" from Lyrics.
Death and remembrance
O'Connell died suddenly in 1899 from a coldCommon cold
The common cold is a viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory system, caused primarily by rhinoviruses and coronaviruses. Common symptoms include a cough, sore throat, runny nose, and fever...
that turned into pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
published an obituary and printed a quatrain
Quatrain
A quatrain is a stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines of verse. Existing in various forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and China; and, continues into the 21st century, where it is...
by the Australian poet Adam Lindsay Gordon
Adam Lindsay Gordon
Adam Lindsay Gordon was an Australian poet, jockey and politician.- Early life :Gordon was born at Fayal in the Azores, son of Captain Adam Durnford Gordon who had married his first cousin, Harriet Gordon, both of whom were descended from Adam of Gordon of the ballad...
incorrectly stating that it was one of O'Connell's:
In 1900, Ina Coolbrith
Ina Coolbrith
Ina Donna Coolbrith was an American poet, writer, librarian, and a prominent figure in the San Francisco Bay Area literary community...
, Bohemian Club librarian, edited a collection of O'Connell's poetry, entitled Songs from Bohemia, copyrighted to Mabel Ashley O'Connell. Coolbrith ended the book with "The Chamber of Sleep", the last poem by O'Connell, written ten days before his death. William Greer Harrison wrote in a memorial foreword that O'Connell was an avid outdoorsman of eternally sunny disposition. He mentioned his appreciation for good food and his fine chef's skill in delicate cookery. Harrison wrote of his flair for swordsmanship and his pleasure in fishing, and noted that during any of these activities, O'Connell could be seen pausing to write down on a scrap of paper an idea for a story.
Mabel Ashley O'Connell died of grief a year after her husband. Harrison wrote that she "lingered here only long enough to say farewell to her many friends, and then joined her husband in the land that is hidden from material eyes, where love and life are one."