Kate O’Brien was born in Limerick in 1897, and spent many years in Spain.
Her novels include Without My Cloak (London, Heinemann 1931); The Ante-Room (Heinemann, 1934); Mary Lavelle (Heinemann 1936); The Land of Spices (Heinemann, 1941); The Last of Summer (Heinemann, 1943); and That Lady (Heinemann, 1946).
She wrote several non-fiction works, including Teresa of Avila (London, Parrish, 1951), and travel volumes on Ireland and Spain, including Farewell Spain (London, Heinemann, 1937).
She has the distinction of having been banned in both Ireland (Mary Lavelle and The Land of Spices) and Spain (Farewell, Spain).
Her first novel, Without My Cloak, won both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Hawthornden Prize.
She settled in Galway in 1950, but was forced by bankruptcy to move to England in 1960.
She died in Kent, England, in 1974.
Kate O'Brien Digital Literary Atlas of Ireland, 1922-1949
Kate O’Brien at The National Library of Ireland