Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art

December 1949 – July 1951. Dublin, Ireland. Founder & editor: John Ryan

During its brief existence, Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art, published the work of a broad range of writers, Irish and others. The first to publish J. P. Donleavy, Brendan Behan's first short stories and his first poem, and an extract from Samuel Beckett's Watt, Envoy was begun by John Ryan, a Dublin artist, who was editor and prime mover. Among the distinguished associate editors were Valentin Iremonger, Irish diplomat and poet who served as poetry editor, James Hillman (who began his career as associate editor for Envoy), Michael Huron, and Owen Quinn. Envoy included Patrick Kavanagh's infamous monthly "Diary". Brian O'Nolan was also a contributor (once writing a "counter-diary" to Kavanagh's Diary) and was "honorary editor" for the special number commemorating James Joyce.

In December 1949 Envoy was inaugurated in response to Irish trade and censorship restrictions which had forced many writers to seek publication outside their homeland. Though the Envoy Publishing Company's goal of publishing books died with the magazine in July, 1951, the short-lived enterprise succeeded, with the lone publication of Valentin Iremonger's prize-winning book of poetry Reservations, and with its lively magazine, in breaching some of the barriers of Irish publication, as well as providing outstanding prose, poetry, criticism, and reviews of the contemporary Irish art scene during its twenty-month existence.

The Envoy offices were located at 39 Grafton Street but most of the journal’s business was conducted in the nearby pub, McDaid’s. Antoinette Quinn (Patrick Kavanagh: A Biography): " Around one o'clock the Envoy office would empty intself into John McDaid's, a small, narrow, high-ceilinged pub at 3 Harry Street, where much of the journal's business was conducted. The clientele was a mixture of working class and bohemian."

Among Envoy contributors were Samuel Beckett, Brendan Behan, Brian O'Nolan, Patrick Kavanagh (who wrote the monthly "Diary"), Anthony Cronin, Patrick Swift, J. P. Donleavy, John Jordan, Padraic Colum, Aidan Higgins, Pearse Hutchinson, Maria Jolas (in translation), Mary Lavin, Ewart Milne, Denis Devlin, Ethel Mannin, Lionel Miskin, Edward Sheehy, Aloys Fleischmann, Francis Stuart, Anton Chekhov (in translation), Arland Ussher, Thomas Woods, and many others.

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