Ginger Man Letters: Irish Literature Series

Bill Dunn, a longtime J.P. Donleavy fan and collector of his work, was determined to meet him and did so in 1990. Then a newspaper reporter, Dunn interviewed Donleavy during a US book tour. Instead of the scheduled 45-minute interview, they spent the entire day together. They hit it off and went on to become good friends. During a prolonged 2005 visit to Levington Park, Dunn researched and wrote the bibliographic inventory of Donleavy’s archive, which became the reference document in the author’s discussions with universities interested in acquiring his papers. In his archive research, Dunn read Donleavy’s correspondence with Gainor Crist and Arthur Kenneth Donoghue, recommending they be collected in a book. Permissions were eventually obtained. Bill Dunn is the author of six previous books, including two on lighthouses. He lives in Sea Girt, New Jersey, two blocks from a lighthouse where he is a docent and the historian.