As its editor Liam Harte argues in the introduction to this volume, “a history of autobiographical self-representation in Ireland is long overdue” (1). This anthology represents a belated entry in what is itself a belated scholarly project, that of establishing an Irish literary history. The last two decades have seen the publication of an essential general history of Irish literature, as well as histories of Irish theater and the Irish novel, all published by Cambridge University Press. In addition, Cambridge has published an array of handbooks and introductions to Irish poetry, which, it is to be hoped, augur the arrival of a history of Irish verse. However, despite both a long tradition of Irish autobiographical writing and a veritable explosion of contemporary Irish life-writing, there has been relatively little scholarly attention to the study of Irish autobiography. Harte himself is one of the most prolific and insightful contributors to this scholarly literature, and, as he notes, an Irish counterpart to the useful annotated bibliographies of British and American autobiography has yet to be produced. Indeed, had Harte made available only the invaluable timeline of Irish autobiography that begins the book, A History of Irish Autobiography would have been enormously helpful to scholars. On the whole, this anthology is an authoritative and essential volume for Irish studies scholars in multiple fields. However, as indicated by the indefinite article in the title, it does not claim to be the definitive history of Irish autobiography. A History of Irish Autobiography represents the beginning of a scholarly conversation rather than the culmination of one.

The volume's definition of what constitutes Irish autobiography is productively capacious; as Harte notes, “the very fact that autobiography in Ireland is such an ancient and widespread practice, which has attracted a broad spectrum of writers (obscure as well as renowned, marginally literate as well as educationally privileged) and given rise to a highly diverse miscellany of texts (spoken as well as written, obliquely self-revelatory as well as purposely confessional), presents a formidable obstacle to systematic investigation” (1). Accordingly, Harte has assembled a group of scholars from various fields and affiliations to write about multifarious generic categories of Irish autobiography and has arranged the volume by genre, style, period, region, and life circumstance rather than strict chronology. In addition to explorations of literary autobiography, the most researched form of Irish life-writing, chapters are devoted to medieval and early modern forerunners of modern autobiography and to new digital frontiers in life-writing, to travel writing, oral history, and spiritual autobiography, and to writing specifically by Protestants, political figures, women, writers from the North, rural and working class writers, abuse survivors, celebrities, Irish speakers, and writers from the diaspora. Perhaps controversially for literary critics, the volume also includes a chapter by Jonathan Bolton on the autobiographical novel, a large and rather contentious category of Irish literature, many of whose practitioners strenuously or at least playfully disavow the autobiographical nature of their fiction. This chapter, an effective if necessarily incomplete reading of the genre, appears despite the deliberate exclusion, as Harte notes, of autobiographical expression in film, theatre, poetry, or artwork. A chapter or two on these explorations might have added still more to the interest of the volume.

It is testament to the sheer mass of Irish autobiographical writing and to Harte's deft editing that there is relatively little repetition of texts or life writers from chapter to chapter; perhaps not surprisingly, Yeats, who was of course a Protestant political figure and literary autobiographer of the Revival, is mentioned most often by contributors. Though my own work has been in the area of literary autobiography by Irish women and literary and mass-market autobiographical accounts by former Irish children, I was introduced to a primary source useful to my scholarship in practically every chapter, and I suspect that scholars of multiple fields and interests would have the same experience. Viewed strictly as an act of scholarly recovery, the volume is essential, but every chapter also offers brisk and insightful readings of each primary source as well as reflections on sources’ cumulative import, and Harte's introduction is a masterful review of the extant scholarship on Irish autobiography.

A History of Irish Autobiography opens up multiple avenues of future inquiry for Irish studies scholars, perhaps particularly in studies of mass-market autobiography, one of the best-selling genres in contemporary Ireland. A study of the consumption and reception of these works would be a valuable contribution to the literature. Two essays—”The Irish Abuse Survivor Memoir” by Moira J. Maguire and “Irish Celebrity Autobiography” by Anthony P. McIntyre and Diane Negra—offer a starting point for that conversation, though I found myself wishing that McIntyre and Negra had included in their discussion Irish male sports celebrity autobiographies, which are among the most popular texts in contemporary Ireland and which often read like abuse memoirs. However, this is less a criticism than an expression of the intellectual excitement that this volume provoked in me and that I believe it will provoke in other readers. I predict that Irish studies scholars will look back on the publication of this volume as a catalyst for a great many rich and long-lived scholarly conversations.