Aidan Higgins (1927-2015) was an Irish novelist and writer, whose works include short stories, travel memoirs, essays, autobiographical fiction, and several dramas for BBC Radio 3 and RTÉ Radio 1.
Born in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland, Higgins’ upbringing and various travels to England, Germany, Africa, and Spain influenced his writing. Higgins worked as a copywriter and scriptwriter in advertising, including the Domas Advertising Agency in Dublin and Filmlets in Johannesburg.
He published his first short story collection, Felo De Se in 1960, which was awarded the Somin Trust Award. Langrishe, Go Down, his first novel, was published in 1966 and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction and the Irish Academy of Letters Award. British playwright Harold Pinter wrote the screenplay for a BBC television adaptation of the novel, which starred Judi Dench and Jeremy Irons.
Higgins’ 1972 novel Balcony of Europe was short-listed for the Booker Prize. His other novels include Scenes from a Receding Past (1977), Bornholm Nigh-Ferry: A Novel (1983), and Lions of Grunewald (1993). Short story collections include Helsingor Station and Other Departures: Fictions and Autobiographies, 1956-1989 (1989) and Flotsam and Jetsam (1997). Examples of Higgins’ autobiographical fiction, which frequently draws from his travels, are Donkey’s Years: Memories of Life as Story Told (1995), Dog Days (1998), Whole Hog (2000). In addition to literary awards, Higgins’ received a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) scholarship in 1969 and was awarded a D.D.L. from the National University of Ireland (2001).
The Aidan Higgins Collection is comprised of materials documenting Higgins’ creative process, including drafts and notebooks for his novels Langrishe, Go Down and Balcony of Europe.
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