    thumb|right|james stephens, irish author and poet james stephens (9 february 1880 â 26 december 1950) was an irish novelist and poet. james' mother worked in the home of the collins family of dublin and was adopted by them. james was brought up in a protestant orphanage, the meath protestant industrial school for boys.http://www.ricorso.net/rx/az-data/authors/s/stephens_j2/life.htm he attended school with his adopted brothers thomas and richard (tom and dick) before graduating as a solicitor's clerk. they competed and won several athletic competitions despite james' slight stature (he stood 4'10" in his socks). he was known affectionately as 'tiny tim'. he was much enthralled by tales of military valour of his adoptive family and would have been a soldier except for his height. by the early 1900s james was increasingly inclined to socialism and the irish language (he could speak and write irish) and by 1912 was a dedicated irish republican. he was a close friend of the 1916 leader thomas macdonagh, who was then editor of "the irish review", manager of the irish theatre and deputy headmaster in st enda's, the radical bilingual school run by p.h. pearse, and spent most with macdonagh in 1911. his growing nationalism brought a schism with his adopted family, but probably won him his job as registrar in the national gallery of ireland, where he worked between 1915 and 1925, having previously had an ill-paid job with mecredy solicitors' firm. james stephens produced many retellings of irish myths and fairy tales. his retellings are marked by a rare combination of humour and lyricism (deirdre, and irish fairy tales are often especially praised). he also wrote several original novels (the crock of gold, etched in moonlight, demi-gods) based loosely on irish fairy tales. the crock of gold in particular has achieved enduring popularity and has often been reprinted.http://www.poemhunter.com/james-stephens/biography/ stephens began his career as a poet under the tutelage of "Ã" (george william russell). stephens's first book of poems, insurrections, was published in 1909. his last book, kings and the moon (1938), was also a volume of verse. stephens's influential book on the 1916 easter rising, insurrection in dublin, describes the effect of the deaths by execution of his friend thomas macdonagh and others as being "like watching blood oozing from under a door". https://archive.org/details/insurrection_dublin_i_librivox stephens lived between paris, london and dublin. du
1882_births 1950_deaths Irish_fantasy_writers Irish_novelists Irish_poets Irish_short_story_writers Irish_writers People_from_County_Dublin