Vivian Mercier
Vivian Mercier was a notable twentieth-century Irish writer, scholar, and linguist born in Dublin in 1919. He received his education at Portora Royal School and went on to achieve a scholarly status at Trinity College Dublin, where he also earned his Ph.D. Throughout his academic career, which spanned from the 1940s to the 1980s, Mercier taught at various universities across the United States. He married fellow Irish novelist Eilís Dillon in 1974 and later took a position at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he remained until his retirement in 1987, splitting his time between California and Ireland.
Mercier was a prominent scholar in Anglo-Irish literature, recognized especially for his work on Samuel Beckett. He is well-known for his analysis of Beckett's "Waiting for Godot," famously stating that it is a play where "nothing happens—twice." His influential study "Beckett/Beckett," published in 1977, received critical acclaim. Mercier's first book, "The Irish Comic Tradition," published in 1962, aimed to elevate the study of Anglo-Irish literature as a distinct field. After his passing in 1989, Eilís Dillon edited and published his important work on Irish literary history, "Modern Irish Literature: Sources and Founders."
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Vivian Mercier
Author
- Born: April 5, 1919
- Birthplace: Dublin, Ireland
- Died: November 4, 1989
- Place of death: London, England
Biography
Vivian Mercier, a twentieth century Irish writer, scholar, and linguist, was born in Dublin in 1919. He received his education at Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, Ireland, before attending Trinity College in Dublin as a scholar, an impressive status bestowed by the college on particularly successful students who have filled set requirements. Mercier earned his Ph.D. at Trinity and then taught at universities throughout the United States between the 1940’s and 1980’s.
Mercier married Irish novelist Eilís Dillon in 1974, when he was a professor of English at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The couple moved to California when Mercier accepted his last professorial position in the English department of the University of California at Santa Barbara. Until Mercier’s retirement in 1987, the couple spent the winter in California and the spring and summer in Ireland.
A prominent scholar in the field of Anglo-Irish literature, Mercier was an expert on the works of Samuel Beckett, and he wrote prolifically about Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot. He is famed for his assessment that “Godot is a play in which nothing happens— twice.” His study of Beckett’s work, Beckett/Beckett (1977), also garnered wide critical acclaim.
With his first book, The Irish Comic Tradition, published in 1962, Mercier aimed to establish and further the examination of Anglo-Irish literature as its own field of study rather than a subset of English literature. His widow, Eilís Dillon, edited and published Mercier’s notable study of Irish literary history, Modern Irish Literature: Sources and Founders, published in 1994, five years after Mercier’s death.