Francis Hackett

Clongowes 1897-1900 I Francis Hackett

Francis Hackett (1883-1962), novelist, historian and journalist, was a native of Kilkenny, who attended Clongowes in 18971900. He developed a passion for literature. He emigrated to the USA in 1901, where he worked in various newspapers including the Chicago Evening Post, becoming the founding editor of its nationally renowned literary supplement, Friday Literary Review. In 1914 he became founding literary editor of the New York based, left wing journal New Republic. There he won recognition as at leading intellectual of the American progressive era, championing individualism, cultural pluralism, social democracy and literary modernism – he enthusiastically reviewed James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in 1917. Two selections of his literary journalism were published in book form. The re-emergence in Ireland of revolutionary nationalism prompted him to write several studies of Irish history and nationalism. As a journalist he twice visited Ireland to report on the Troubles, meeting leading politicians and literati. He moved from supporting dominion home rule to advocating outright separatism. From 1922-39 he lived in Europe, mainly Ireland, earning his living as a writer. He wrote fluently and his output was prolific. His gained critical acclaim and a measure of financial stability with his vivid and best-selling biography Henry the Eighth (1929), which is generally regarded as his best work. His novels included The Green Lion (1936) a coming-of-age story, partly set in Clongowes, which was banned in Ireland. His wife was the distinguished Danish-American writer, Signe Toksvig (1891-1983). After her novel Eve’s Doctor (1937) was also banned, they left Ireland in disgust. Returning to the USA, in What Mein Kampf Means to America (1941) he challenged American isolationism in the face of fascism, which he detested. His final postwar years were spent in Denmark, which he regarded as a progressive society in contrast to his disillusionment with newly independent Ireland. He was a brother of Father William Hackett, SJ.