WRITER

John O'Hara

1905 - 1970

Photo of John O'Hara

Icon of person John O'Hara

John Henry O'Hara (January 31, 1905 – April 11, 1970) was an American writer. He was one of America's most prolific writers of short stories, credited with helping to invent The New Yorker magazine short story style. He became a best-selling novelist before the age of 30 with Appointment in Samarra and BUtterfield 8. While O'Hara's legacy as a writer is debated, his work was praised by such contemporaries as Ernest Hemingway and F. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of John O'Hara has received more than 523,328 page views. His biography is available in 27 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 26 in 2019). John O'Hara is the 5,098th most popular writer (down from 4,573rd in 2019), the 7,231st most popular biography from United States (down from 6,522nd in 2019) and the 570th most popular American Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 520k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 47.23

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 27

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 2.55

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.08

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Sermons and soda-water
Social life and customs, United States in fiction, Fiction
1960
Appointment in Samarra
Ethnic relations, Fiction, Fiction in English
O’Hara did for fictional Gibbsville, Pennsylvania what Faulkner did for Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi: surveyed its social life and drew its psychic outlines, but he did it in utterly worldly terms, without Faulkner’s taste for mythic inference or the basso profundo of his prose. Julian English is a man who squanders what fate gave him. He lives on the right side of the tracks, with a country club membership and a wife who loves him. His decline and fall, over the course of just 72 hours around Christmas, is a matter of too much spending, too much liquor, and a couple of reckless gestures. That his calamity is petty and preventable only makes it more powerful. In Faulkner, the tragedies all seem to be taking place on Olympus, even when they’re happening among the low-lifes. In O’Hara, they could be happening to you.
1934
Ten North Frederick
National Book Award Winner, award:national_book_award=1956, award:national_book_award=fiction
1955
Pal Joey
Librettos, Musicals
1940
A rage to live
Adultery, Fiction, German language
1949
Butterfield 8
Mistresses, Fiction in English, Prostitution
'On this Sunday morning in May, this girl who was later to be the cause of a sensation in New York awoke much too early for her night before'... This particular morning Gloria finds herself alone in a stranger's apartment with nothing but a torn evening dress and her stockings and panties. When she takes a fur coat from the wardrobe to wear home, she sets in train a series of events that will lead to tragedy. A bestseller on its first publication, BUtterfield 8 is the glittering story of a 1930s glamour girl whose ill-starred entanglement with a respectable married man is set against a backdrop of Manhattan bars and bedrooms.
1935
Butterfield 8
Mistresses, Fiction in English, Prostitution
'On this Sunday morning in May, this girl who was later to be the cause of a sensation in New York awoke much too early for her night before'... This particular morning Gloria finds herself alone in a stranger's apartment with nothing but a torn evening dress and her stockings and panties. When she takes a fur coat from the wardrobe to wear home, she sets in train a series of events that will lead to tragedy. A bestseller on its first publication, BUtterfield 8 is the glittering story of a 1930s glamour girl whose ill-starred entanglement with a respectable married man is set against a backdrop of Manhattan bars and bedrooms.
1935
A rage to live
Adultery, Fiction, German language
Naturalistic study of a stratum of upperclass life in America, set in a Pennsylvania town.
1949
Great American Short Stories
American fiction, short stories, American Horror tales
Contains: Rip Van Winkle / Washington Irving -- [Young Goodman Brown](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL455569W/Young_Goodman_Brown) / Nathaniel Hawthorne -- [Fall of the house of Usher](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL41078W) / Edgar Allan Poe -- [Bartleby the scrivener](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL102732W/Bartleby_the_Scrivener) / Herman Melville -- Baker's bluejay yarn / Mark Twain -- Tennessee's partner / Bret Harte -- The real thing / Henry James -- The boarded window / Ambrose Bierce -- A village singer / Mary Wilkins Freeman -- Mrs.Ripley's trip / Hamlin Garland -- A muncipial report / O. Henry -- Roman fever / Edith Wharton -- The open boat / Stephen Crane -- Unlighted lamps / Sherwood Anderson -- The man who saw through heaven / Wilbur Daniel Steele -- Silent snow, secret snow / Conrad Aiken -- He / Katherine Anne Porter -- The catbird seat / James Thurber -- The little wife / William March -- [Wash](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL16245840W/Wash) / William Faulkner -- The snake / John Steinbeck -- To the mountains / Paul Horgan -- Over the river and through the wood / John O'Hara -- The wind and the snow of winter / Walter Van Tilburg Clark -- Powerhouse / Eudora Welty -- In greenwich there are many gravelled walks / Hortense Calisher.
1957
Sermons and soda-water
Social life and customs, United States in fiction, Fiction
1960
Ten North Frederick
National Book Award Winner, award:national_book_award=1956, award:national_book_award=fiction
1955
Appointment in Samarra
Ethnic relations, Fiction, Fiction in English
O’Hara did for fictional Gibbsville, Pennsylvania what Faulkner did for Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi: surveyed its social life and drew its psychic outlines, but he did it in utterly worldly terms, without Faulkner’s taste for mythic inference or the basso profundo of his prose. Julian English is a man who squanders what fate gave him. He lives on the right side of the tracks, with a country club membership and a wife who loves him. His decline and fall, over the course of just 72 hours around Christmas, is a matter of too much spending, too much liquor, and a couple of reckless gestures. That his calamity is petty and preventable only makes it more powerful. In Faulkner, the tragedies all seem to be taking place on Olympus, even when they’re happening among the low-lifes. In O’Hara, they could be happening to you.
1934

Among WRITERS

Among writers, John O'Hara ranks 5,098 out of 7,302. Before him are Charlotte Casiraghi, María Teresa León, David Belasco, Andreas Kalvos, Einar Már Guðmundsson, and Abdul Muis. After him are François Weyergans, Maria Aurèlia Capmany, Béla Illés, Nino Martoglio, George Borrow, and Alexander Kazantsev.

Most Popular Writers in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1905, John O'Hara ranks 281. Before him are László Sternberg, Erskine Hamilton Childers, Theodor Blank, Aurélio de Lira Tavares, Wolfgang Liebeneiner, and Óscar Bonfiglio. After him are Jean De Clercq, Harry Lundahl, Hale Asaf, Inger Hagerup, Josef Smistik, and Osvald Käpp. Among people deceased in 1970, John O'Hara ranks 205. Before him are Valerio Arri, Cyril Scott, Andrejs Upīts, Gypsy Rose Lee, Ernst Krebs, and Slim Harpo. After him are Louisa Bolus, Edward Everett Horton, Adam Rapacki, Panagiotis Pipinelis, Karel Pešek, and Alexandros Chalkokondylis.

Others Born in 1905

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Others Deceased in 1970

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In United States

Among people born in United States, John O'Hara ranks 7,231 out of 20,380. Before him are Ted Raimi (1965), Caleb Deschanel (1944), Brenda Bakke (1963), Jack Lousma (1936), Little Eva (1943), and Dan Lauria (1947). After him are Joseph Banks Rhine (1895), Charles S. Dutton (1951), Charli D'Amelio (2004), Luther Allison (1939), Sonny Clark (1931), and Lucy Webb Hayes (1831).

Others born in United States

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Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, John O'Hara ranks 570. Before him are Peter S. Beagle (1939), Frank O'Hara (1926), Michael Cristofer (1945), Stephen Hunter (1946), Elaine May (1932), and David Belasco (1853). After him are Alan Dean Foster (1946), Jack Finney (1911), Frank Norris (1870), Joel Chandler Harris (1848), Warren Farrell (1943), and Patrick Rothfuss (1973).

American born Writers

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