IRELAND | Is Francie Based on Francis O'Neil? Yes and No

When Ireland Was Poor.

Francie on the Run is the second of my late mother Hilda van Stockum's "Irish Trilogy", which starts with The Cottage at Bantry Bay and ends with Pegeen. The books were originally published by Viking Press when the children's book editor was the truly great May Massee.

My Mom told me that Massee urged her to stick with the old rural Ireland that she knew, where children like her (she lived in Ireland as well as Holland when she was growing up) ran barefoot. Some of Mom's Irish friends wanted her to show that Dublin and other urban areas were catching up, becoming more like New York City. All the more reason, said Massee, to capture the way it once was.

The three Irish books had a huge following during the late 1930s into the 1950s. In the 1960s the fashion in children's literature started to shift to diversity issues and the portrayal of long-ago family life was crowded out in the schools by newer books. Viking let the books go out of print. Bethlehem Books in North Dakota loved the Irish Trilogy and they reissued the books and have kept them in print. Catholic homeschoolers love the book and doubtless many of them have Irish roots.

The year after my mother died, in September 2007, I was delighted to received this message from Francis Joseph O'Neil:

I knew Hilda van Stockum from Georgetown, Washington DC. I ran away and went to the zoo at age three. The zoo was about six miles from my home on M Street. A policeman at the zoo asked me where my parents were and when I couldn’t tell him he took me to the police station. I remember them setting me up on the desk way up high in the policeman’s chair and it had two lights, one on each side. The lights had a long slender post with a globe of white glass mounted on top and I remember then bringing me ice cream. They eventually found my father [William John O’Neil] and took me home. The story of my runaway made its way into the Washington papers and soon after your mother contacted my parents. That’s how I came to know her. From what I can remember she became a good friend of my mother [Virginia Dare O’Neil]. We lived at 3029 M Street and I believed your mother lived up the hill from me about R street [it was 3728 Northampton Street]. I remember my brother and I [the other two boys in the family are Robert Evert O'Neil and Regis Terrence O'Neil] went to your mother’s house to sit for her illustrations. Years later, I heard from my parents that I might have been the inspiration for Francie. I am very sorry to hear of your mother’s death and wish I could have found her before she passed away. 

Francis O'Neil (Opp, AL)" [Opp is on the southern end of Alabama, near the Florida border. It is called Opp because it is a “City of Opportunity”.]

I have been doing some followup research on the origin of the Irish books. The Cottage at Bantry Bay I had heard was based at least partly on the Murray family. Some members of the Murray family  came to stay with us. On Francis O'Neil's claim, I can report:

• Yes indeed, the drawings and character of Francie in Francie on the Run do seem to be based on Francis O'Neil.
• However, the character of Francie in the earlier book, The Cottage at Bantry Bay, is not. 
• The O'Sullivan family is based on the Murray family, which really did include twins–Francie and Liam–and an older boy called Michael and a girl called Brigid (Bridey). 
• The character of Francie in Francie on the Run is much more independent and from information collected from my sibs Olga, Brigid, Sheila and Lis, it appears that the character of the older Francie and the drawings of him in the book are based on Francie O’Neil.

HvS got to know the Murray family (possibly as many as nine Murray children) when May Murray worked for Olga van Stockum, HvS’s mother, in Ireland in the late 1920s. May was reportedly a bit in love with Jan, HvS’s younger brother. HvS’s world-class editor, May Massee, insisted that the family be pruned down to four for The Cottage at Bantry Bay. Francie Murray came to visit the Marlin family in Blackrock, Dublin when the Marlins moved there in 1952. Bridey stayed with the Marlins later on Harbour Road in Dalkey.

Much later, in Canada, May and Agnes Murray came to work for HvS when her mother, our granny, was ill (and eventually died) in 1949.

It would be good to find the original story in the Washington Post or wherever it was. I did a Google search and nothing came up that looked plausible given Francis O'Neil's age. But Regis Terrence O'Neil came up and it appears to be Francie's brother, born in 1934 in Ohio, same age as my eldest sister Olga:

Regis Terrence O'Neil (Brother of Francis, "Francie" in Francie on the Run) Born March 3, 1934 in Ohio Mother born in West Virginia Father: William John O'Neil, born in Pittsburgh, Pa. Source: Ohio Birth Index, 1908-2011, record count #13,254,340, Ohio Dept. of Health.

http://www.odh.ohio.gov/vs. File date: March 8, 1934. Certificate Number: 1934019747

HvS | In Eight Languages (Updated May 12, 2016)

The first HvS book to be translated into
Japanese was A Day on Skates in 2009,
75 years after it was first published!

The following is a representative list of 17 translations of or by Hilda van Stockum. It is incomplete (some illustrators are omitted) and subject to changes (cited copyrights may have been transferred). The full list of books is likely to be closer to 30.

Hilda van Stockum's books have been translated from English into seven other languages–Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese and Portuguese.

Her translations into English are from the Dutch or German. (Her French wasn't bad either.)

Six HvS Books Selected for Translation

A Day on Skates (1934) was translated into Japanese as A Skating-Picnic (2009).

The Cottage at Bantry Bay (1936) was translated into Dutch (1958), Hebrew (1961), Japanese (2009) and Portuguese (1971). With four foreign translations, this is van Stockum's most-translated book.

Pegeen (1939) was translated into German (1963).

The Mitchells (1944) was translated into Danish (1964) and Portuguese (1974).

The Winged Watchman (1962) was translated into Danish (1968) and French (1991)

The Borrowed House (1975) was translated into Dutch (2012).

Danish (2 books)

The Mitchells was translated by Rose-Marie Tvermoes (Lene Andreasen also listed–was he the editor?) as Miller-Bornene and published in Copenhagen by Forlaget Fremad press, 1964.

The Winged Watchman was translated as Pa post i mollen by Host & Sons Forlag in Copenhagen, 1968.

Dutch (2 books, plus five Dutch-English translations by HvS)

I have asserted elsewhere that the first book of Hilda van Stockum to be translated into Dutch was The Borrowed House, translated as Het Gestolen Huis in 2012 and published by Mozaiek Junior. I was wrong, because...

The Cottage at Bantry Bay was previously translated as Het Huisje aan de Baai ("The House on the Bay") Translator: Joh E. Kuiper, Tony Holst. Publisher: N.V. Uitgeverij, A. Roelofs Van Goor Meppel, 1958).

Translated from the Dutch by Hilda van Stockum:

Pothast-Grimberg,  C. E. Corso the Donkey (Constable, London, 1962). Originally published as Het Ezeltje Corso (Van Goor Zonen, The Hague, Holland).

Selleger-Elout,  J. M. Marian and Marion (Viking, NYC, 1949). Copyright to the original Dutch book by N. V. Servire, 1934. Viking translation published on the same day in Canada by Macmillan.

Thyssen, Theo. Young Kees.  Manuscript of translation and adaptation donated to the Grummond Center on Children's Literature at the University of Southern Mississippi. Publication status not yet determined.

van Iverson, Siny. The Smugglers of Buenaventura (William Morrow, NYC, 1974). Originally published as De Smokkelaars Van Buenaventura (Uitgeversmij n.v. H.P. Leopolds, The Hague, Holland, 1964).

van Iverson, Siny. The Spirits of Chocamata (William Morrow, NYC, 1977). Originally published as Schaduw over Chocomata (Uitgeversmij n.v. H.P. Leopolds, The Hague, Holland).

French (1 book)

The Winged Watchman was translated into French as Le Veilleur.  Translated from "the American" by André Divault. Published in paperback by Hachette Jeunesse, 1991, acknowledging the Collins edition in Toronto as the original (1962).

German (1 book, plus two German-English translations by HvS)

Pegeen was translated as Polly und die Culainskinder, published by Matthias Grunewald-Verlag-Mainz, 1963.

Translated from the German by Hilda van Stockum:

Achim Bröger, Bruno, William Morrow & Co., NYC, 1975. Originally published in German as Der Ausreden-Erfinder und Andere Bruno-Geschichten, by K. Thienemanns Verlag, Stuttgart, 1973.

Achim Bröger, Outrageous Kasimir, William Morrow & Co., NYC, 1976. Originally published in German as Steckst Du Dahinter, Kasimir? published in Stuttgart by K. Thienemanns Verlag,  Stuttgart, 1975. (Story of someone who alters people's behavior by getting inside them.)

Hebrew (1 book)

An Israeli edition of The Cottage at Bantry Bay was published in 1961.

Japanese (1 book)

A Day on Skates (1934) was translated into Japanese as A Skating-Picnic by Yoshiko Funato in 2009. The cover is shown above. It was published in 2009 by Fukuinkan Shoten Publishers, Japan.

Portuguese (2 books)

The Cottage at Bantry Bay is translated as Quatro Crianças e um Cão (Four Kids and a Dog). A Portuguese-language edition was published in Porto, Portugal, by Livraria Civilização Editora in 1971, authorized by the Viking Press, NYC, which published the original work in 1938. A paperback edition of The Cottage at Bantry Bay has been published by Bethlehem Books by contract with the author and (since 2006) the author's estate. All residual rights have been transferred by the estate to Boissevain Books LLC, in NYC, of which the sole managing director is John Tepper Marlin. Illustrations are copyright until 2076 (70 years after the death of the illustrator). The literary copyright is valid until 2056 (50 years after the death of the author).

The Mitchells: Five for Victory is translated as A Família Mitchell (The Mitchell Family). A Portuguese-language edition was published in Porto, Portugal, by Livraria Civilização Editora in 1974, authorized by the Viking Press, NYC, which published the original work in 1945. A paperback edition of The Mitchells has been published by Bethlehem Books by contract with the author and (since 2006) the author's estate. All residual rights have been transferred by the estate to Boissevain Books LLC, New York City, of which John Tepper Marlin is the sole managing director. Illustrations are copyright until 2076 (70 years after the death of the illustrator). The literary copyright is valid until 2056 (50 years after the death of the author).

This blog is sponsored by Boissevain Books, which publishes books by Hilda van Stockum. To buy a book and support keeping her work alive, go to www.boissevainbooks.com.

HILDA VAN STOCKUM NEWS

Hilda  van Stockum, Self-Portrait

- A Dutch publisher located near the Hague has translated "The Borrowed House" into Dutch. That is only the second HvS book to be translated into Dutch, the other being "The Cottage at Bantry Bay", with the title changed to "The Little House [Huisje] on the Bay".  We are sending her the best photos we can find of HvS in her 20s or 30s.
- HvS's obituary in the newspaper "Het Parool" said that her books were famed around the world, everywhere it seems except the country of her birth. With two Dutch books out, that should change. The next two books that should be translated into Dutch are "The Winged Watchman" (which has sold 45,000 copies since it was given up for dead by Farrar, Straus and Giroux) and "A Day on Skates" (which should be given the name in the Dutch edition of "A Day on Skates in Friesland").
- HvS is appearing in a forthcoming book on converts to Catholicism. She would be so pleased to think of herself being in the tradition of Newman and Knox. Chesterton was the writer, she told me, that persuaded her to become a Catholic.
- An Australian comic book publisher is looking into making a comic out of a movie script based on "The Winged Watchman". The Japanese editions of "A Day on Skates" - the first HvS book translated into Japanese - sold well in 2009-2010. The Japanese Ambassador's wife wrote to us saying how much she loved the book. The publisher is happy and is looking at the possibility of doing more books by HvS.

- Portuguese editions of "The Cottage at Bantry Bay" and "The Mitchells" were published. 

-. A French edition of "The Winged Watchman" appeared  under the name "Le Veilleur" published by Hachette.

-. A German edition of "Penengro" was  published..