James T. Farrell Books In Order

Publication Order of Danny O'Neill Pentalogy Books

Publication Order of Studs Lonigan Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

James T. Farrell was an American novelist that was best known for the “Studs Lonigan Trilogy.” The author was born to a second-generation working-class Catholic-Irish family from Chicago in 1904.
James Farrell his father used to work as a truck driver and for most of the author’s childhood, he struggled to support an ever-growing family of more than fifteen children.
Given the hard times, the author’s father sent him to live with his illiterate but relatively comfortable grandparents in Chicago.

When Farrell was about 15, his grandparents moved to the neighborhood of South Fifties, which would be the inspiration for the setting of most of his “Studs Lonigan” series.
Very little is known about the author’s life but it is believed he did well enough that he managed to get into the University of Chicago in 1925. It was in university that he developed a deep obsession and passion for writing.
It was also here that he came up with the quote that he would write regardless of the consequences that would become one of his most famous.

Another important quote attributed to Farrell was when he said that one of the biggest achievements one could have was the right to declare oneself an artist.

Farrell took his first steps toward becoming a published author upon the publishing of “Slob,” the short story which came out in 1929. Nonetheless, his most famous works were published in the early and mid-1930s.
In 1931, James T. Farrell got married to Dorothy Butler who he married at least two times over his lifetime. The two went on a journey of self-discovery to Paris where he tried living as an expatriate.
Fortunately, he fast realized that he found no meaning in that life. In 1932, he would return to the United States where he continued writing.

Still, his time in Paris was not all in vain as it was during this time that he began writing and published “Young Lonigan,” the first of the “Studs Lonigan” series of novels.
He continued writing after he came back from Paris and published the second of the series in 1934 and the third in 1935.

After this very successful period, James T. Farrell would fall into a fallow period that would persist for much of his life.

Rather than taking the time to pen more innovative and well-thought-out novels, Farrell decided to go for volume as he decided not to take into account the lack of critical praise coming his way.
By the time of his death in 1979, he had penned more than fifty works that included novels and collections of short stories over a career that spanned about 50 years.
While he would never have much success with his other novels apart from the “Studs Lonigan” series, he would become an award-winning novelist.

He was the winner of the Saint Louis University Library St Louis Literary Award in 1973. He was also inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame in 2012.

James T. Farrell’s novel “Young Lonigan” is a work set in Chicago’s South Side in a predominantly Irish middle-class neighborhood in 1916.
The lead in the novel is Studs a young man that will be imminently graduating from the parochial St Patrick’s grammar school.

The work is set in the summer break between high school and grammar school graduation. Studs is not so sure if high school is for him as he would prefer to be an apprentice to a painting contractor.

By working for the contractor, he would get money and transform into an independent man rather than remain a boy. His mother wants him to continue in school so that he would further on become a priest.

Similar to most people, he is conflicted and confused about many things. However, his main and most immediate goal is to establish his reputation as the toughest kid in the neighborhood by punching out Weary Reilly.

To become the most feared man on the block, he goes on a summer quest of hooliganism. He is often involved in tobacco chewing, fist fights, spitting, bullying, petty theft, vandalism, and a lot of despicable behavior alongside some older guys.
There is also a lot of antisemitism, and racism showcased in some ugly gang violence, taunts, jokes, and epithets.

“The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan” continues to follow the life and times of Studs Lonigan. It is a work full of violence, whoring, apathy, compulsion, bigotry, and denigration, particularly of women.

Studs becomes even more degenerate than he was in the first novel. The credit for his soulless nature mostly comes from his conflicted feelings with regard to his Strict Catholic Irish upbringing, the Catholic Church, and his urban childhood.
Nonetheless, he cannot totally blame his community and his parents for his behavior and life circumstances. It would be a ludicrous assertion given that many of his peers were brought up in the same community.

Many of Studs Lonigan’s peers graduated high school and went to prestigious universities across the US. As for Lonigan, he seems to have an innate laziness and also spends a lot of time with the wrong crowd.
He opts for a life of excessive drinking and hanging out lazily playing pool while maligning his peers who have made better lives for themselves through education or hard work.
Studs Lonigan continues to become a character that perfectly models self-destruction.

“Judgment Day” by James T. Farrell continues to follow Studs Lonigan on his journey toward total self-destruction.

Studs cuts a pathetic character as he repeatedly avoids serious self-reflection, neglects his health, makes the wrong decisions, and is his own worst enemy.
He happens to live at a time and in a city in which the social mores of the time and the landscape of the Depression come front and center.

The lead character’s struggles continue as he tries to relive his youthful days with a special fondness, even as he tries to figure out how to move forward with his life.
In the middle of the Depression era, he is feeling like he waster a lot of opportunities that he may never get back.

Overall, this is a wake-up call for Studs and the general working class. Most of this group is given to political ignorance, drinking, sexual repression, superstition, and racism and this has stunted their development into what they could have been.