Among the pieces with a documentary base, most of which remain unpublished, the elegiac
He Had a Date (1944) and
Sunbeams in his Hat (1944), a dramatization of the death of Chekhov, are especially moving, while the version of Goethe's
Faust (1949) was one of MacNeice's most ambitious and successful undertakings for radio. In his last play for broadcasting,
Persons from Porlock (1963), which portrays the life and career of a painter, MacNeice took up the theme of the relation between artistic deliberation and sheer accident. This theme is found in much of his work, including his two most important stage plays.
The childhood of Frederick Louis MacNeice--he was known as Frederick until, at about seventeen, he adopted Louis as his first name--was darkened by such grim family circumstances as the deep depression of his mother, Elizabeth Margaret MacNeice, and her death from tuberculosis when he was six years old and the mongolism of his elder brother. Both parents came from Connemara, a countryside to which MacNeice himself became deeply attached, though his own early years were spent in Carrickfergus, county Antrim, where his father, John Frederick MacNeice, was rector. The senior MacNeice, who later became bishop of Down, Connor, and Dromore, was a declared supporter of Home Rule.
This is a free page. This page contains 193 words. This
biography contains 1,771 words (approx. 6 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our (Frederick) Louis MacNeice Access Pass.
