Books by Edwin O'Connor

Edwin O'Connor (1918 - 1968) was an American journalist and novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1962 for The Edge of Sadness (1961).

O'Connor was a radio personality, journalist, and novelist, originally from Rhode Island who spent most of his professional life in and around Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Notre Dame University and afterward served in the United States Coast Guard during World War II. In 1946 he began working as a free lance author, selling his stories and reports to numerous magazines, including Atlantic Monthly.

In the 1950's, he began a career as a television critic for two Boston newspapers, a profession he would follow for the rest of his life. He also wrote his first novel, The Oracle (1951). Soon afterward, he wrote the novel for which he is most remembered, The Last Hurrah (1956). This novel was adapted for film in 1958, and O'Connor wrote the screenplay himself. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his next novel, The Edge of Sadness. O'Connor's television criticism appeared in the collection I Was Dancing in 1964, and his last novel, All in the Family, appeared in 1966. O'Connor died before the age of 50, in 1968.