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My Left Foot - Wikipedia PDF
My Left Foot - Wikipedia PDF
Christy Brown
Born 5 June 1932
Crumlin, Dublin, Ireland
Died 7 September 1981
(aged 49)
Parbrook, Somerset,
England
Occupation Novelist, painter, poet
Nationality Irish
Period 1954–1981
Genre Non-fiction
Life
Christy Brown was born into a working-
class Irish family at the Rotunda Hospital
in Dublin in June 1932. His parents were
Bridget Fagan[1] (1901–1968) and Patrick
Brown. He had 22 siblings. Out of these
22, 13 lived and 9 died in infancy.[1] After
his birth, doctors discovered that he had
severe cerebral palsy,[1] a neurological
disorder which left him almost entirely
spastic in his limbs. Though urged to
commit him to a hospital,[2] Brown's
parents were unswayed and subsequently
determined to raise him at home with their
other children. During Brown's
adolescence, social worker Katriona
Delahunt became aware of his story and
began to visit the Brown family regularly,
while bringing Christy books and painting
materials as, over the years, he had shown
a keen interest in the arts and literature.
He had also demonstrated extremely
impressive physical dexterity since, soon
after discovering several household books,
Christy had learned to both write and draw
himself, with the only limb over which he
had unequivocal control: his left leg.[2]
Brown quickly matured into a serious
artist. Although Brown famously received
almost no formal schooling during his
youth, he did attend St Brendan's School-
Clinic in Sandymount intermittently. At St.
Brendan's he came in contact with Dr.
Robert Collis, a noted author. Collis
discovered that Brown was also a natural
novelist and, later, Collis helped use his
own connections to publish My Left Foot,
by then a long-gestating autobiographical
account of Brown's struggle with everyday
life amidst the vibrant culture of Dublin.[3]
Death
Brown's health deteriorated after marrying
Carr. He became mainly a recluse in his
last years, which is thought to be a direct
result of Carr's influence and perhaps
abusive nature.[10] Brown died at the age
of 49 after choking during a lamb chop
dinner. His body was found to have
significant bruising, which led many to
believe that Carr had physically abused
him. Further suspicions arose after
Georgina Hambleton's biography, The Life
That Inspired My Left Foot, revealed a
supposedly more accurate and unhealthy
version of their relationship. The book
portrays Carr as an abusive alcoholic and
habitually unfaithful.[11] In Hambleton's
book, she quotes Brown's brother, Sean, as
saying: "Christy loved her but it wasn't
reciprocated because she wasn't that kind
of person. If she loved him like she said
she did, she wouldn't have had affairs with
both men and women. I feel she took
advantage of him in more ways than one."
Literary legacy
Brown's self-proclaimed masterpiece,
Down All the Days, was an ambitious
project drawn largely from a playful
expansion of My Left Foot; it also became
an international best-seller, translated into
fourteen languages. The Irish Times
reviewer Bernard Share claimed the work
was "the most important Irish novel since
Ulysses." Like James Joyce, Brown
employed the stream-of-consciousness
technique and sought to document
Dublin's culture through the use of humour,
accurate dialects and intricate character
description. Down All the Days was
followed by a series of other novels,
including A Shadow on Summer (1972),
Wild Grow the Lilies (1976) and A
Promising Career (published posthumously
in 1982). He also published three poetry
collections: Come Softly to My Wake,
Background Music and Of Snails and
Skylarks. All the poems are included in The
Collected Poems of Christy Brown.
Cultural references
A film adaptation of My Left Foot directed
by Jim Sheridan was produced in 1989
from a screenplay by Shane Connaughton.
Daniel Day-Lewis starred as Brown and
Brenda Fricker as his mother; both won
Academy Awards for their performances.
The film also received Academy Award
nominations for Best Picture, Best
Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
References
1. Hambleton, Georgina Louise (2
September 2011). Christy Brown: The Life
That Inspired My Left Foot . Mainstream
Publishing. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-78057-334-2.
Retrieved 26 February 2015.
2. Jordan (1998), pp. 20–21.
3. Jordan (1998), p. 49.
4. Jordan (1998), pp. 68–74.
5. Jordan (1998), p. 91.
6. Jordan (1998), p. 103.
7. Jordan (1998), p. 111.
8. Jordan (1998), p. 118.
9. Jordan (1998), pp. 127–128.
10. Peterkin, Tom (6 November 2007).
"Christy Brown 'neglected by ex-prostitute
wife' " . The Daily Telegraph. London.
Retrieved 6 November 2007.
11. Asthana, Anushka (17 November 2007).
"The dark side of a poet that Hollywood
didn't show" . The Guardian. London.
Retrieved 17 November 2007.
Bibliography
Jordan, Anthony J. (1998). Christy
Brown's Women: A Biography Drawing on
His Letters. Westport Books. ISBN 978-
0-9524447-3-2.
External links
Christy Brown Biography
Christy Brown on IMDb
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