By Frances Scanlon
1. Maeve Brennan read her horoscope faithfully and daily; she was a Capricorn born on Jan. 6, 1917.
2. Maeve Brennan had a big hit with “The Springs of Affection” in 1996; she died, though, on Nov. 1, 1993, All Saints Day, suddenly of heart failure. She was then a resident (along with her furry friends) of the Lawrence Nursing Home in Arverne, N.Y. (yes, the Rockaways!).
3. She is not interred in a Queens cemetery; she was cremated and the ashes transmitted to the family.
4. Flowers would not grow under her, but she brandished a red carnation on her lapel every single day, consistent with her unique and stylish comportment.
5. Although Nov. 2 is All Souls Day, don't go channeling hers; she will kick off on RTE Radio a new weekly “Book Show” at 7 p.m. (Irish time – what else?) which will pay tribute to Maeve with a lengthy item in the first program, including readings and a recorded discussion. Listen live on www.rte.ie/radio and/or download the program later.
6. Yes you are aware of "The Springs of Affection" (Maeve's Dublin stories) published in 1996; she, however, wrote a novella, "The Visitor," which was published in London and New York in 2000.
7. Run to the Irish Arts Center to see Eamon Morrissey in "Maeve's House," which is enjoying an extended run; she cannot be kept waiting.
8. There is only one biography that extols fully the essence of this exceptional creature; she would want you to know its name: "Maeve Brennan: Homesick at The New Yorker," authored by Angela Bourke, which is on track to be reprinted in London by Random House.
9. As the New Yorker’s Long-Winded Lady, she wrote about New York City and its denizens: "half-capsized [...] with the inhabitants hanging on, most of them still able to laugh as they cling to the island that is their life's predicament"; she would want you to recall that especially during this first-anniversary of Sandy-tide.
10. Every now and then somebody will tell someone else to "Shut Up", or even call another long-winded; she has had the last laugh; she's winding up all over again; hitting triples that would make the best world series league writer jealous; and has she ever gotten a second wind. Play ball, Maeve!
Frances Scanlon acknowledges the exceptional generosity of biographer Angela Bourke in replying to her questions arising out of a recent Irish Arts Center organized Tour - walking herself's pathways, hearing her words spoken, amongst stranded Greenwich Village Ghosts fetching a Sun-shellacking Autumn in New York.
