An unprecedented gathering of the correspondence of one of the great writers of the twentieth century, The Collected Letters of Flann O’Brien presents an intimate look into the life and thought of Brian O’Nolan, a prolific author of novels, stories, sketches, and journalism who famously wrote and presented works to the reading public under a variety of pseudonyms. Spanning the years 1934 to 1966, these compulsively readable letters show us O’Nolan, or O’Brien, or Myles Na gCopaleen, or whatever his name may be, at his most cantankerous and profound.

Edited by Maebh Long, Senior Lecturer of English, University of Waikato NZ , author of Assembling Flann O’Brien.

"O'Brien was one of the comic geniuses of the 20th century . . . " - Boston Globe

"O'Brien is always worth investigation by the converted, the curious, and the endemically lighthearted." - Kirkus Reviews

"When the layers are peeled away, they reveal an imaginative comic genius with a genuine gift for language." - Publishers Weekly

"“'Tis the odd joke of modern Irish literature—of the three novelists in its holy trinity, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and Flann O'Brien, the easiest and most accessible of the lot is O'Brien. . . . Flann O'Brien was too much his own man, Ireland's man, to speak in any but his own tongue.”" - Washington Post

"Wit, humor, satire, the exact fall of a Dublin syllable, the ear for the local turn, the flight of fancy that can spin into a Dublin joke or a Limerick limerick--all these are his." - New York Times

"“Flann O'Brien is unquestionably a major author. His work, like that of Joyce, is so layered as to be almost Dante-esque. . . . Joyce and Flann O'Brien assault your brain with words, style, magic, madness, and unlimited invention.”" - Anthony Burgess

"A real writer, with the true comic spirit." - James Joyce