With Corona-chan stalking amongst us, it seemed best to stay by the hearth-fire this St. Patrick’s Night. For the first time in awhile, I actually have some leisure hours to do a post. In the spirit of the occasion, I thought I’d look at how A. Merritt viewed Ireland and the Irish. A. Merritt's ancestors came from the southwest of England, but he had a sincere admiration for the Emerald Isle.*

Merritt’s admiration for the Irish is evident in his fiction. His blockbuster, break-out novel, The Moon Pool, features an ensemble cast, but the crucial figure in many ways is Larry O’Keefe. O’Keefe is the son of an Irishman and an American mother who has volunteered to fly for the British Royal Flying Corps in World War One. He ends up stranded at sea and is rescued by Dr. Goodwin and his crew, who are on their way to Ponape. Here are a few excerpts from the first meeting of the two men:

"I'm Larry O'Keefe. It's a far way from Ireland, but not too far for the O'Keefe banshee to travel if the O'Keefe was going to click in [i.e., ‘die’].”

“I [Dr. Goodwin] saw a lean, intelligent face whose fighting jaw was softened by the wistfulness of the clean-cut lips and the honesty that lay side by side with the deviltry in the laughing blue eyes; nose of a thoroughbred with the suspicion of a tilt; long, well-knit, slender figure that I knew must have all the strength of fine steel; the uniform of a lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps of Britain's navy.”

'“ ‘If you're in love, love to the limit; and if you hate, why hate like the devil and if it's a fight you're in, get where it's hottest and fight like hell—if you don't life's not worth the living,’ sighed [O’Keefe]. “

-- The Moon Pool

O’Keefe is, in some ways, similar to Leo Vincey from Haggard’s She, but I think he’s a more likeable and relateable character. Throughout the novel, he’s throwing out references to Ireland, the Tuatha de Danaan and the Sidhe. He’s also a bad-ass who backs up the quote above with some bloody mayhem. O’Keefe is a man who lives life to the fullest and follows his instincts.

Another bad-ass of Irish descent from Merritt’s novels is John Kenton, the protagonist of The Ship of Ishtar. Kenton is an American archaeologist with Irish roots who finds himself a galley-slave in the World of the Ship. He makes friends with a time-lost Viking, Sigurd, who is chained beside him. At a glance, Sigurd can tell that Kenton is of Irish blood:

"By your looks, you are a man of Eirnn, of the Southern Isles," Sigurd whispered. "No grudge bear I against them. They met us always sword to sword and breast to breast. Many the blows we have struck between us, and the hovering Valkyries went never empty-handed back to Valhalla where we met the men of Eirnn. Brave men, strong men, men who died shouting, kissing sword blade and spear point. Are you one of these?"

"Kenton, my name," he answered softly. "My fathers were of the Eirnn. They knew well the Vikings and their ships—nor have they handed down to me any grudge against them. I would be a friend of yours, Sigurd Trygg's son."

-- The Ship of Ishtar

O’Keefe and Kenton are the only two Irishmen of major consequence in Merritt’s fiction, but they are the protagonists in two of his most successful and influential novels. Both characters are dark-haired and light-eyed, which is also exactly how Robert E. Howard portrayed almost all of his own Irish/Irish-American/Cimmerian characters starting just a few years later. Of course, REH was black-haired and blue-eyed—and Irish—himself…

The centennial of the first publication of The Ship of Ishtar is fast-approaching. Rest assured, Gentle Readers, that the DMR Blog will give the hundredth birthday of Merritt’s classic novel the coverage it deserves. For those curious about The Moon Pool, check out the link below.

*I have it on good authority that A. Merritt had a bottle of Irish stout delivered to his desk at The Atlantic Weekly every afternoon. Feel free to raise one for the occasion.

“The Moon Pool” Posts at the DMR Blog

As we at DMR Books are huge fans of Merritt, it was a thrill to discover an unpublished version of his classic tale “The Woman of the Wood” and include it in the anthology Renegade Swords. For more information on the anthology, which also includes stories by Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, and many more, click here.