Duffy's Rocks

Edward Fenton

ISBN 10: 0525289402 / ISBN 13: 9780525289401

Published by E. P. Dutton, New York, 1974

About this Item

Hardback. First Edition. Foxing to end inside covers and edge. Wear and a couple of small tears to edge of D/J. Browning to D/J. The first time that Timothy Brennan went into downtown Pittsburgh alone, he thought he saw his father. When the man kindly assured him of being a stranger, Timothy was deeply embarrassed. He was also determined to find the dashing Bart Brennan, who had failed to take him to the circus nearly seven years ago and had not been in Duffy's Rocks again. No one in Timopthy's closely knit Irish family was in sympathy with his quest, not even his cousin Mary Agnes, closest in age to his thirteen years and herself half an orphan, But Timothy had to persevere - for surely if he could find his father, he would also find the beauty and wonder that the pinched gray life under the physical pall of the mill smoke and the spiritual pall of the Great Depression lacked so completely. Edward Fenton has written a very human and very absorbing story with all the bone-deep aching as well as the hopefulness of feeling young and incomplete. 198 pp. (We carry a wide selection of titles in The Arts, Theology, History, Politics, Social and Physical Sciences. academic and scholarly books and Modern First Editions ,and all types of Academic Literature.).

Seller Inventory # 080296

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Duffy's Rocks
• Publisher: E. P. Dutton, New York
• Publication Date: 1974
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0525289402
• ISBN 13: 9780525289401
• Binding: Cloth
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fair
• Seller catalogs:
  • Childrens Books & Young Adults

About this title

Synopsis

An Irish-Catholic boy growing up in the Pittsburgh area in the 1930's painfully searches for his identity.

About the Author

Edward Fenton (1917-1995), the author of Duffy's Rocks, was born in New York City, but lived mainly in Italy and Greece. His writing included works for both children and adults, but his best known works are those for younger readers. Fenton translated two books by Aliki Zei, both of which won the Batchelder prize for translation. It is said that a friend of Fenton's from New York invited him to McKees Rocks for a family wedding , and from that visit and discussions about the friend's childhood, the story for Timothy Brennan developed. Although Fenton never lived in Pittsburgh, his understanding of the ethnic richness of the city is clear in his depiction of the Brennan family and their neighbors. In his approach to writing stories for younger readers, Fenton claimed that "Children hunger for plot. The recognition of this desire for a story is another way of saying that they require form. . . . They are absolutely logical and impossible to deceive. They know when the Emperor is wearing no more than his underdrawers."

Dr. Margaret Mary Kimmel is professor in the department of Library and Information Science where she teaches children's literature and courses related to the provision of information services to young people. With Mark Collins, Dr. Kimmel co-edited Mr. Rogers Neighborhood: Children Television and Fred Rogers, and For Reading Out Loud with Elizabeth Segal. Active in many professional associations, Dr. Kimmel is a member of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Board of Trustees. Kimmel received the Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Service in 1996.