CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

James T. Farrell

American writer (1904–1979)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ1371154
Source-derived summary

James Thomas Farrell (February 27, 1904 – August 22, 1979) was an American novelist, short story writer and poet.

He is most remembered for the Studs Lonigan trilogy, which was made into a film in 1960 and a television series in 1979.

Biography

Farrell was born in Chicago, to a large Irish-American family that included siblings Earl, Joseph, Helen, John and Mary. In addition, there were several other siblings who died during childbirth, as well as one who died from the 1918 flu pandemic. His father was a teamster, and his mother a domestic servant. His parents were too poor to provide for him, and he went to live with his grandparents when he was three years old.

Raised Catholic on the Chicago's South Side, Farrell attended St. Anselm Catholic School and Mt. Carmel High School then known as St. Cyril High School, with future Egyptologist Richard Anthony Parker.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “James T. Farrell” is american writer (1904–1979). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through James, Farrell and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1904, 1979, 1960, 1918—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1904-02-27. For this dossier, James, Farrell and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american writer (1904–1979)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1371154. VIAF identifies the subject as 46775204. The Library of Congress control number is n79141404. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1904, 1979, 1960 and 1918.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “James T. Farrell”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow James T. Farrell primary sources, James T. Farrell archive and James research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “James T. Farrell”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from James T. Farrell” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.