David Marcus: Editing Ireland

David Marcus was Ireland’s most important and influential literary editor of the twentieth century. Born into Cork’s small Jewish community in 1924, his remarkable career spanned sixty years and saw him work with countless writers of note from Edith Somerville and Liam O’Flaherty to Claire Keegan and Kevin Barry. While perhaps best remembered for editing the ‘New Irish Writing’ page in The Irish Press between 1968 and 1986, Marcus was also a translator, a novelist and the editor of numerous trailblazing anthologies. Published to mark his centenary year, this miscellany – which includes poems, fiction, memoir and essays – celebrates this brilliant, self-effacing man, whose legacy and influence continue to shape our culture today.