Editing Patrick O'Brian

{{Short description|English novelist (1914–2000)}}
{{Other people5|Patrick O'Brien (disambiguation){{!}}Patrick O'Brien}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2018}}
{{Infobox author
| image        =
| imagesize    = 
| name         = Patrick O'Brian
| honorific_suffix       = [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]]
| caption      = Patrick O'Brian
| birth_name   = Richard Patrick Russ
| birth_date   = 12 December 1914
| birth_place  = [[Chalfont St. Peter]], [[Buckinghamshire]], England
| death_date   = {{death date and age|2000|1|2|1914|12|12|df=y}}
| death_place  = [[Dublin]], Ireland
| resting_place = [[Collioure]], France
| resting_place_coordinates =  <!-- {{coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline}} -->
| occupation  = Novelist and [[translation|translator]]
| spouse      = Elizabeth Jones (divorced)<br/>Mary O'Brian (1945–1998)
|notableworks = [[Aubrey–Maturin series]]
}}

'''Patrick O'Brian''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CBE}} (12 December 1914 – 2 January 2000), born '''Richard Patrick Russ''', was an English [[novelist]] and translator, best known for his [[Aubrey–Maturin series]]. These [[sea novel]]s are set in the [[Royal Navy]] during the [[Napoleonic Wars]] and centre on the friendship of the English naval captain [[Jack Aubrey]] and the Irish–Catalan physician [[Stephen Maturin]]. The 20-novel series, the first of which is ''[[Master and Commander]]'', is known for its well-researched and highly detailed portrayal of early 19th-century life, as well as its authentic and evocative language. A partially finished 21st novel in the series was published posthumously containing facing pages of handwriting and typescript.

O'Brian wrote a number of other novels and short stories, most of which were published before he achieved success with the Aubrey–Maturin series. He also translated works from French to English, and wrote biographies of [[Joseph Banks: A Life|Joseph Banks]] and [[Picasso]].

His major success as a writer came late in life, when the Aubrey–Maturin series caught the eye of an American publisher. The series drew more readers and favourable reviews when the author was in his seventies. Near the end of his life, and in the same year that he lost his wife, British media revealed details of O'Brian's early life, first marriage, and post-war change of name, causing distress to the very private author and to many of his readers at that time.

==Personal life and privacy==

===Childhood, early career and marriages===
O'Brian was christened as Richard Patrick Russ, in [[Chalfont St Peter]], [[Buckinghamshire]], a son of Charles Russ, an English physician of German descent, and Jessie Russ (née Goddard), an English woman of Irish descent.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}} The eighth of nine children, O'Brian lost his mother at the age of four, and his biographers describe a fairly isolated childhood, limited by poverty, with sporadic schooling, at [[St Marylebone Grammar School]] from 1924 to 1926, while living in Putney, and then at [[Lewes Grammar School]], from September 1926 to July 1929, after the family moved to [[Lewes]], [[East Sussex]],<ref name="Tolstoyp72">{{Cite book |last=Tolstoy |first=Nikolai |title=Patrick O'Brian: The making of the novelist |publisher=Arrow |year=2005 |isbn=978-0393061307 |page=72 |author-link=Nikolai Tolstoy}}</ref> but with intervals at home with his father and stepmother Zoe Center.<ref name="GBrown">{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Anthony Gary |url=http://www.hmssurprise.org/patrick-and-mary-obrian |title=The Patrick O'Brian Muster Book: Persons, Animals, Ships and Cannon in the Aubrey–Maturin Sea Novels |publisher=McFarland & Company |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-7864-2482-5 |edition=Second |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |orig-year=2006}}</ref>

His literary career began in his childhood, with the publication of his earliest works, including several short stories. The book ''[[Hussein, An Entertainment]]''  published by [[Oxford University Press]] in 1938, and the short-story collection ''Beasts Royal'' brought considerable critical praise, [[Novelist#Age and experience|especially considering his youth]].<ref name=kinglrev/> He published his first novel at age 15, ''Caesar: The Life Story of a Panda Leopard'', with help from his father.<ref name=kinglrev />{{rp|50}}<ref name="Veale">{{Cite news |last=Veale |first=Scott |date=5 March 2000 |title=The Man Without a Past |work=[[The New York Times]] |department=Review |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/03/05/reviews/000305.05vealet.html |access-date=4 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=O'Brian |first=Patrick |title=Caesar: The Life Story of a Panda Leopard |date=17 April 2001 |publisher=W W Norton |isbn=978-0393321821 |orig-year=1930}}</ref>

In 1927 he applied unsuccessfully to enter the [[Britannia Royal Naval College|Royal Naval College, Dartmouth]].<ref name="Tolstoyp80">{{Cite book |last=Tolstoy |first=Nikolai |title=Patrick O'Brian: The making of the novelist |publisher=Arrow |year=2005 |isbn=978-0393061307 |page=80 |author-link=Nikolai Tolstoy}}</ref> In 1934, he underwent a brief period of pilot training with the [[Royal Air Force]], but that was not successful and he left the RAF. Prior to that, his application to join the [[Royal Navy]] had been rejected on health grounds.<ref name=GBrown /> In 1935, he was living in London, where he married his first wife, Elizabeth Jones, in 1936. They had two children. The second was a daughter who suffered from [[spina bifida]], and died in 1942, aged three, in a country village in Sussex. When the child died, O'Brian had already returned to London, where he worked throughout the war.

The details of his employment during the [[Second World War]] are murky. He worked as an ambulance driver, and he stated that he worked in intelligence in the [[Political Intelligence Department (1939–1943)|Political Intelligence Department]] (PID).<ref>{{Cite news |date=7 January 2000 |title=Patrick O'Brian |work=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/6916742/Patrick-OBrian.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100108084432/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/6916742/Patrick-OBrian.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 January 2010 |access-date=19 February 2019}}</ref> [[Dean King]] has said O'Brian was actively involved in intelligence work and perhaps special operations overseas during the war.<ref name="kinglrev">{{Cite book |last=King |first=Dean |title=Patrick O'Brian:A life revealed |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |year=2000 |isbn=0-340-79255-8 |location=London |author-link=Dean King}}</ref>{{rp|89–104}} Indeed, despite his usual extreme reticence about his past, O'Brian wrote in an essay, "Black, Choleric and Married?", included in the book ''Patrick O'Brian: Critical Appreciations and a Bibliography'' (1994)<ref name=cunningham1994>{{cite book |title=Patrick O'Brian: Critical Appreciations and a Bibliography |editor=Cunningham, A.E. |year=1994 |publisher=The British Library Publishing Division |location=London |isbn=0-7123-1070-3 |pages=15–19 }}</ref> that: "Some time after the blitz had died away I joined one of those intelligence organisations that flourished during the War, perpetually changing their initials and competing with one another. Our work had to do with France, and more than that I shall not say, since disclosing methods and stratagems that have deceived the enemy once and that may deceive him again seems to me foolish. After the war we retired to Wales (I say we because my wife and I had driven ambulances and served in intelligence together) where we lived for a while in a high Welsh-speaking valley..." which confirms in first person the intelligence connection, as well as introducing his wife Mary Tolstoy, née Wicksteed, as a co-worker and fellow intelligence operative.

[[Nikolai Tolstoy]], [[stepson]] through O'Brian's marriage to Mary, disputes that account,<ref>{{cite book |title=Patrick O'Brian: The making of the novelist |last=Tolstoy |first=Nikolai |author-link=Nikolai Tolstoy |year=2005 |publisher=Arrow |isbn=978-0393061307 |pages=269–274 }}</ref> confirming only that O'Brian worked as a volunteer ambulance driver during the [[The Blitz|Blitz]] when he met Mary, the separated wife of Russian-born nobleman and [[lawyer]] Count Dimitri Tolstoy. They lived together through the latter part of the war and, after both were divorced from their previous spouses, they married in July 1945. The following month he changed his name by [[deed poll]] to Patrick O'Brian.

=== Sailing experience ===
As background to his later sea-going novels, O'Brian did claim to have had limited experience on a square-rigged sailing vessel, as described within his previously-quoted 1994 essay:

{{Quote|text=The disease that racked my bosom every now and then did not much affect my strength and when it left me in peace (for there were long remissions) sea-air and sea-voyages were recommended. An uncle had a two-ton [[sloop]] and several friends had boats, which was fine, but what was even better was that my particular friend Edward, who shared a tutor with me, had a cousin who possessed an ocean-going yacht, a converted square-rigged [[merchantman]], that he used to crew with undergraduates and fair-sized boys, together with some real seamen, and sail far off into the Atlantic. The young are wonderfully resilient, and although I never became much of a topman, after a while I could hand, reef and steer without disgrace, which allowed more ambitious sailoring later on.<ref name="cunningham1994" />}}

However, in 1995, venture capitalist [[Thomas Perkins (businessman)|Thomas Perkins]] offered O'Brian a two-week cruise aboard his then sailing yacht, a {{convert|154|ft|m|adj=on}} [[ketch]]. In an article about the experience written after O'Brian's death, Perkins commented that "... his knowledge of the practical aspects of sailing seemed, amazingly, almost nil" and "... he seemed to have no feeling for the wind and the course, and frequently I had to intervene to prevent a full standing [[jibe|gybe]]. I began to suspect that his autobiographical references to his months at sea as a youth were fanciful."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.latitude38.com/features/O'Brian.htm |title=Cruising with Patrick O'Brian – The Man and the Myth |last=Perkins |first=Tom |publisher=Latitude 38|date=August 2000 |access-date=30 March 2017}}</ref>

===Life after the Second World War===
Between 1946 and 1949 the O'Brians lived in [[Croesor|Cwm Croesor]], a remote valley in north Wales, where they initially rented a cottage from [[Clough Williams-Ellis]]. O'Brian pursued his interest in [[natural history]]; he fished, went birdwatching, and followed the local hunt. During this time they lived on Mary O'Brian's small income and the limited earnings from O'Brian's writings.

In 1949 O'Brian and Mary moved to [[Collioure]], a Catalan town in southern France. He and Mary remained together in Collioure until her death in 1998. Mary's love and support were critical to O'Brian throughout his career. She worked with him in the British Library in the 1940s as he collected source material for his anthology ''A Book of Voyages'', which became the first book to bear his new name – the book was among his favourites, because of this close collaboration. The death of his wife in March 1998 was a tremendous blow to O'Brian. In the last two years of his life, particularly once the details of his early life were revealed to the world, he was a "lonely, tortured, and at the last possibly paranoid figure."<ref name="Tolstoy">{{cite book |last=Tolstoy |first=Nikolai |title=Patrick O'Brian: The making of the novelist |publisher=Random House |location=London |year=2004 |isbn=0-09-941584-4}}</ref>

===Media exposure and controversy in his final years===
O'Brian protected his privacy fiercely and was usually reluctant to reveal any details about his private life or past, preferring to include no biographical details on his book jackets and supplying only a minimum of personal information when pressed to do so.<ref name="Tolstoy" /> For many years reviewers and journalists presumed he was Irish,<ref>For example, [[Lord Dunsany]] referred to ''The Last Pool'' as "this charming book by an Irish sportsman" in a 1950 ''[[The Observer|Observer]]'' review (Tolstoy, 324), and [[William Waldegrave, Baron Waldegrave of North Hill|William Waldegrave]], reviewing ''The Wine-Dark Sea'' in 1993, was still referring to O'Brian's supposed "Irish, French and English childhood" (William Waldegrave, ''Patrick O'Brian'', reprinted in Patrick O'Brian, ''The Reverse of the Medal'', HarperCollins reprinted 2003)</ref> and he took no steps to correct the impression. One interviewer, Mark Horowitz, described the man in his late seventies as "a compact, austere gentleman.&nbsp;... his pale, watchful eyes are clear and alert."<ref name=Horowitz /> He is polite, formal, and erudite in conversation, an erudition that Horowitz said could be intimidating. He learned from those who worked with O'Brian that the erudition did not go unnoticed, while they remained friends.

Richard Ollard, a [[naval historian]], calls this particular habit "blowing people out of the game." Ollard, who edited the early Aubrey–Maturin novels, urged O'Brian to tone down the most obscure allusions, though the books remain crammed with Latin tags, antiquated [[medical terminology]] and an endless stream of marvellous-sounding but impenetrable naval jargon. "Like many who have struggled themselves", Ollard said of his friend, "he thought others should struggle, too." One longtime acquaintance put it more bluntly: "Patrick can be a bit of a snob, socially and intellectually."<ref name=Horowitz />

In 1998, a [[BBC]] documentary and an [[Investigative journalism|exposé]] in ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''<ref name="Telegraph Fenton">{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1999/10/24/nobr24.html |title=The Secret Life of Patrick O'Brian |last=Fenton |first=Ben |date=24 October 1999 |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |access-date=26 August 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060105221749/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=%2Farchive%2F1999%2F10%2F24%2Fnobr24.html |archive-date=5 January 2006 }}</ref> made public the facts of his ancestry, original name and first marriage, provoking considerable critical media comment. In his biography of O'Brian,<ref name="Tolstoy" /> Nikolai Tolstoy claims to give a more accurate and balanced account of his late stepfather's character, actions and motives, particularly in respect of his first marriage and family.

[[John Lanchester]] in reviewing Tolstoy's book, says "The last few years have been disheartening for Patrick O'Brian's many fans."<ref name=Lanchester>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3626812/Remember-him-as-a-writer.html |title=Remember him as a writer |date=9 November 2004 |last=Lanchester |first=John |newspaper=The Telegraph |access-date=4 June 2015}}</ref> He does not find the arguments altogether persuasive, and with access to documents that Dean King never saw, Tolstoy "gives a portrait of a man who is cold, bullying, isolated, snobbish and super-sensitive."<ref name=Lanchester /> Lanchester closes by saying "Let's agree, we O'Brianists, to read the novels and forget everything else."  Veale, in reviewing King's book, says that "however judicious and well-grounded his [King's] speculation, he fails to crack his subject's protective shell. In the end, Aubrey and Maturin will have to thrive on their own—which is how the willfully enigmatic O'Brian most likely intended it."<ref name=Veale />

Horowitz interviewed O'Brian at his home in France in 1994: "Until recently, he refused all interviews. Those authors we know the least about, he says, are the ones we get in their purest form, like Homer. In ''Clarissa Oakes'' (published as ''The Truelove'' in the US), Stephen warns would-be interviewers that "question and answer is not a civilised form of conversation." O'Brian deflects direct inquiries about his private life, and when asked why he moved to the south of France after World War II, he stops and fixes his interrogator with a cold stare. "That seems to be getting rather close to a personal question," he says softly, walking on."<ref name=Horowitz />

At his death, many obituaries were published evaluating his work, particularly in the Aubrey–Maturin series, and the revelations of his biography prior to his marriage to Mary Wicksteed Tolstoy.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/library/books/010700obit-obrian.html |title=Patrick O'Brian, Whose 20 Sea Stories Won Him International Fame, Dies at 85 |last=Prial |first=Frank J |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=7 January 2000 |quote=Critics likened the O'Brian books to the sequential novels of Trollope and Anthony Powell, but the comparison that pleased O'Brian most was to Jane Austen. }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.salon.com/2000/01/13/o_brian/ |title= Patrick O'Brian: The author of the wildly popular 18th century seagoing saga created, out of his own life, a fiction nearly as elaborate |last=Williams |first=Ian |magazine=Salon |date=13 January 2000 |access-date=8 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://articles.philly.com/2000-01-08/news/25599146_1_aubrey-maturin-series-patrick-o-brian-stephen-maturin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151231223144/http://articles.philly.com/2000-01-08/news/25599146_1_aubrey-maturin-series-patrick-o-brian-stephen-maturin |url-status=dead |archive-date=31 December 2015 |title=Novelist Patrick O'Brian, Writer of Naval Series, Dies |last=Romano |first=Carlin |newspaper=[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]] |date=8 January 2000 |access-date=8 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-jan-08-mn-52007-story.html |title=Patrick O'Brian; British Master of the High-Seas Adventure Novel |last=Balzar |first=John |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date= 8 January 2000 |access-date=8 June 2015}}</ref><ref name=IrishTimes>{{cite web |url=http://www.irishtimes.com/news/author-patrick-o-brian-dies-in-dublin-1.231499 |title=Author Patrick O'Brian Dies in Dublin |last=Holland |first=Kitty |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=7 January 2000 |access-date=8 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/jan/08/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries |title=Patrick O'Brian |last=Webb |first=W L |date=8 January 2000 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=8 June 2015}}</ref> Playwright [[David Mamet]] wrote an appreciation.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/library/books/011700mamet-writing.html |title=The Humble Genre Novel, Sometimes Full of Genius |last=Mamet |first=David |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=17 January 2000 |quote=His Aubrey-Maturin series, 20 novels of the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars, is a masterpiece. It will outlive most of today's putative literary gems as Sherlock Holmes has outlived Bulwer-Lytton, as Mark Twain has outlived Charles Reade. God bless the straightforward writer, and God bless those with the ability to amuse, provoke, surprise, shock, appall. |access-date=8 June 2015}}</ref> His American publisher, W. W. Norton, wrote an appreciation, mentioning their story with O'Brian, how pleased they were the three times he came to the US, in 1993, 1995 and in November 1999 only weeks before his death, and noting sales in the US alone of over three million copies.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wwnorton.com/pob/bio.htm |title=Patrick O'Brian |publisher=W W Norton |year=2003 |access-date=8 June 2015}}</ref>

==Death==
He continued to work on his naval novels until his death and spent the winter of 1998–1999 at [[Trinity College Dublin]]. He died there on 2 January 2000. His body was returned to [[Collioure]], where he is buried next to his wife.<ref name=IrishTimes /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.collioure.com.au/obrian1.htm |title=Patrick and Mary O'Brian's grave in Collioure |work=Collioure.com.au |access-date=26 August 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091014104145/http://www.collioure.com.au/obrian1.htm |archive-date=14 October 2009}}</ref>

The "Amis de Patrick O'Brian" association, (friends of Patrick O'Brian), which is located in Collioure, was bequeathed O'Brian's desk and various of his writing artefacts and research materials.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://anglophone-direct.com/sos-hms-surprise-patrick-obrian/ |title=SOS HMS Surprise. Patrick O'Brian Needs You! |date=24 April 2017 |work=P-O Life}}</ref>

==Literary career==

===As Patrick Russ===
O'Brian published two novels, a collection of stories and several uncollected stories under his original name, Richard Patrick Russ. His first novel, ''Caesar: The Life Story of a Panda-Leopard'', was written at the age of 12 and published three years later in 1930. It was a critical success, with a recommendation in the ''[[New Statesman]]'' and positive reviews in publications including the ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'' and the ''[[Saturday Review of Literature]]''.<ref name=kinglrev/>{{rp|50}} Other stories followed, published in boys' magazines and [[Annual publication#British annuals|annuals]] and incorporating themes of natural history and adventure, and a collection of these and other animal stories was published in 1934 under the title ''Beasts Royal'', with illustrations by the noted artist [[Charles Tunnicliffe]], illustrator of ''[[Tarka the Otter]]''.

''Hussein: An entertainment'', set in [[India]], was published in 1938, when O'Brian was 23. It was notable for being the first book of contemporary fiction ever published by the [[Oxford University Press]],<ref name=kinglrev/>{{rp|75}} to whose annuals for boys he had been a regular contributor for some years. O'Brian published very little under his original name of Russ during World War II, and nothing after 1940. His change of surname in 1945 necessarily meant abandoning the literary reputation he had built up as R P Russ.

===As Patrick O'Brian===
O'Brian returned to writing after the war when he moved to rural Wales. His non-fiction anthology ''A Book of Voyages'' (1947) attracted little attention. A collection of short stories, ''[[The Last Pool and Other Stories|The Last Pool]]'', was published in 1950 and was more widely and favourably reviewed, although sales were low.<ref name=kinglrev/>{{rp|151–151}} The countryside and people around his village in Wales provided inspiration for many of his short stories of the period, and also his novel ''[[Testimonies (novel)|Testimonies]]'' (1952), which is set in a thinly disguised Cwm Croesor, and which was well received by [[Delmore Schwartz]] in ''[[Partisan Review]]'' in 1952.<ref name=Veale /><ref name=Horowitz /> His next novel was ''The Catalans'', published in 1953. The review in ''The New York Times'' noted O'Brian's accomplishments in ''Testimonies''; ''The Catalans'' was viewed as a series of well-written scenes by an observant author, but the reviewer did not think it held together as a novel.<ref>{{cite news |title=Books of The Times |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |last=Prescott |first=Orville |author-link=Orville Prescott |date=1 January 1954 |access-date=20 February 2019 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1954/01/01/83743731.html?pageNumber=21 |page=21 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In the 1950s, O'Brian wrote three books aimed at a younger age group, ''[[The Road to Samarcand]]'', ''[[The Golden Ocean]]'', and ''[[The Unknown Shore]]''. Although written many years before the [[Aubrey–Maturin series]], the two naval novels reveal literary antecedents of [[Jack Aubrey|Aubrey]] and [[Stephen Maturin|Maturin]]. In ''The Golden Ocean'' and ''The Unknown Shore'', based on events of [[George Anson's voyage around the world]] from 1740 to 1744, they can be clearly seen in the characters of Jack Byron and Tobias Barrow in the latter novel.<ref name=kinglrev/>{{rp|180}}

Over four decades he worked on his own writings, his British literary reputation growing slowly. He became an established translator of French works into English. His early novels and several of the translations were published by [[Publications by Rupert Hart-Davis|Rupert Hart-Davis]] from 1953 to 1974. O'Brian wrote the first of the [[Aubrey–Maturin series]] in 1969 at the suggestion of American publisher [[J. B. Lippincott & Co.|J B Lippincott]], following the 1966 death of [[C. S. Forester]], a writer of popular nautical novels.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Patrick O'Brian: a life revealed |last=King |first=Dean |publisher=H Holt |year=2000 |isbn=0805059768 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=192–200 |oclc=42437180}}</ref> The Aubrey–Maturin books were quietly popular in Britain; after the first four volumes, they were not published in the United States.

In the early 1990s, the series was successfully relaunched into the American market by the interest of Starling Lawrence of W. W. Norton publishers,<ref name=Horowitz>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/18/specials/obrian-comesin.html |title=Patrick O'Brian's Ship Comes In |last=Horowitz |first=Mark |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |department=Books |date=16 May 1993 |access-date=4 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/lawrence-steps-down-as-nortons-editor-in-chief/?_r=0 |title=Lawrence Steps Down as Norton's Editor in Chief |last=Bosman |first=Julie |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=30 June 2011 |access-date=4 June 2015}}</ref> attracting critical acclaim and dramatically increasing O'Brian's sales and public profile in the UK and America.<ref name=kinglrev/>{{rp|Ch.22–23}} Paul D. Colford notes that when O'Brian "visited the United States a few weeks ago [in December 1993], fans waiting to meet, lunch and have tea with him included [[Walter Cronkite]], Sen. [[Dirk Kempthorne]] (R-Idaho) and Supreme Court Justice [[Anthony Kennedy]], who invited O'Brian to attend a session of the high court. Hollywood also wants a piece of the press-shy storyteller."<ref name=Colford>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-01-06-vw-8805-story.html |title=The Tide Is Changing for an Obscure Novelist |date=6 January 1994 |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |last=Colford |first=Paul D |access-date=16 March 2015}}</ref>

The novels sold over three million copies in 20 languages.<ref name=Veale /> In its review of ''[[The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey|21: The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey]]'' (published in 2004), ''Publishers Weekly'' said that over six million copies had been sold.<ref name=PW>{{cite web |url=http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/21-patrick-obrian/1103810573?ean=9780393344141 |date=October 2004 |title=21: The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey |work=Editorial Reviews |publisher=Publishers Weekly |access-date=31 March 2015}}</ref> Thus O'Brian's greatest success in writing, gaining him fame, a following, and invitations to events and interviews came late in his life, when he was well into his seventies and accustomed to his privacy.<ref name=Veale />

Shortly before his last completed novel was published in October 1999, O'Brian wrote an article for a series of the best in the millennium ending, titled "Full Nelson", choosing for his topic [[Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson|Admiral Nelson's]] victory in the [[Battle of the Nile]] in 1798.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/millennium/m1/obrian.html |last=O'Brian |first=Patrick |title=BEST NAVAL BATTLE – Full Nelson: Outmanned and outgunned, the British flummoxed the French |newspaper=[[The New York Times Magazine]] |department=Best in 1,000 Years |year=1999 |quote=It was a famous victory: it shattered Bonaparte's scheme in Egypt and India; it had great political influence in Europe; it was splendidly rewarded, with medals, promotions and quantities of presents bestowed on those who fought, and it awakened the world to Lord Nelson's glory. |access-date=8 June 2015 }}</ref>

===Aubrey–Maturin series===
{{Main|Aubrey–Maturin series}}
Beginning in 1969, O'Brian began writing what turned into the 20-volume [[Aubrey–Maturin series]] of novels. The books are set in the early 19th century and describe the lives and careers of Captain [[Jack Aubrey]] of the Royal Navy and his friend, naval physician and naturalist Dr [[Stephen Maturin]], a man of Irish and Catalan parents. The books are distinguished by O'Brian's deliberate use and adaptation of actual historical events, either integrating his protagonists in the action without changing the outcome, or using adapted historical events as templates. In addition to this trait and to O'Brian's distinctive literary style, his sense of humour is prominent (see [[Aubrey–Maturin series#Humour|Humour]] in main article, ''Aubrey–Maturin series'').

The series employs technical sailing terminology throughout. Some critics consider the books a [[roman fleuve]], which can be read as one long story; the books follow Aubrey and Maturin's professional and domestic lives continuously.

===Other works===
As well as his [[historical novel]]s, O'Brian wrote three adult mainstream novels, six short-story collections, and a history of the Royal Navy aimed at young readers. He was also a respected translator, responsible for more than 30 translations from the French into English, including [[Henri Charrière]]'s ''[[Papillon (book)|Papillon]]'' (UK) and ''[[Banco (novel)|Banco: The further adventures of Papillon]]'', [[Jean Lacouture]]'s biography of [[Charles de Gaulle]], as well as many of [[Simone de Beauvoir]]'s later works.

O'Brian wrote detailed biographies of [[Joseph Banks|Sir Joseph Banks]], an English naturalist who took part in [[James Cook|Cook]]'s [[First voyage of James Cook|first voyage]] (and who appears briefly in O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series), and [[Pablo Picasso]]. His biography of Picasso is a massive and comprehensive study of the artist. Picasso and O'Brian both lived in the French village of [[Collioure]] and became acquainted there.

[[Peter Weir]]'s 2003 film, ''[[Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World]]'' is loosely based on the novel ''The Far Side of the World'' from the [[Aubrey–Maturin series]] for its plot, but draws on a number of the novels for incidents within the film. The character of Jack Aubrey is drawn from the character in the novels.

===Awards, honours and recognition===
In 1995 he was awarded the inaugural [[Heywood Hill Literary Prize]], in the amount of £10,000 for his lifetime's writings. In his acceptance speech in July 1995, O'Brian, then age 80, said it was the first literary prize of his adult life.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DsktwMvI3uAC&q=Heywood+Hill+Literary+Prize+1995&pg=PA355 |title=Patrick O'Brian: A Life |last=King |first=Dean |page=355 |year=2001 |publisher=Henry Holt and Co |location=New York |isbn=9780805059779 }}</ref> He received an [[honorary doctorate]] from [[Trinity College Dublin]], and a [[CBE]] on June 17, 1997.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n09/christopher-tayler/for-want-of-a-dinner-jacket|title=For Want of a Dinner Jacket |first=Christopher|last=Tayler |date=6 May 2021|volume=43|issue=9 |magazine=[[London Review of Books]] }}</ref><ref name=kinglrev/>

On 21–23 September 2001, the [[National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth]], organised a ''The Patrick O'Brian Weekend'' to celebrate O'Brian's achievement in depicting Nelson's Navy in his novels. The weekend featured lectures by some of Britain's leading naval historians on "how the novels closely reflect the insights of modern scholarship". There was a concert of contemporary music and readings from his books. The weekend concluded with a tour of Nelson's flagship [[HMS Victory|HMS ''Victory'']] followed by a dinner on her lower gundeck.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Other Conferences and Meetings |journal=Newsletter of the Society for Nautical Research |date=August 2001 |issue=43 |page=6}}</ref> The event was repeated one year later at the same venue.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Patrick O'Brian Weekend, 13–15 September 2002 |journal=Newsletter of the Society for Nautical Research |date=August 2002 |issue=47 |page=4}}</ref>

==Original manuscripts==
O'Brian claimed that he wrote "like a Christian, with ink and quill"; Mary was his first reader and typed his manuscripts "pretty" for the publisher. O'Brian handwrote all his books and stories, shunning both typewriter and word processor. The handwritten manuscripts for 18 Aubrey-Maturin novels have been acquired by the [[Lilly Library]] at [[Indiana University]]. Only two, ''The Letter of Marque'' and ''Blue at the Mizzen'', owned by Stuart Bennet, remain in private hands. Bennet donated his correspondence from O'Brian to the Lilly Library; one letter recommends to Bennet that he donate the two manuscripts he holds to Indiana University, where the rest of the manuscripts reside.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://beta.worldcat.org/archivegrid/?q=contributor:5361&label=Indiana+University&limit=25 |title=Letters, 1985–1996. O'Brian, Patrick, 1914–2000. |access-date=4 June 2015 |work=Archive Grid |publisher=Indiana University}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Letters, 1985–1996. |publisher=WorldCat |oclc = 233040638}}</ref> The O'Brian manuscript collection at the Lilly Library also includes the manuscripts for ''Picasso'' and ''Joseph Banks'' and detailed notes for six Aubrey/Maturin novels. The 2011 exhibit Blue at the Mizzen suggests that the manuscript was donated.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/digital/collections/items/show/886 |title=Blue at the Mizzen: Patrick O'Brian and the 19th century: an exhibition |date=14 September 2011 |access-date=4 June 2015 |publisher=Indiana University |work=The Lilly Library}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://iub.edu/~mfawrite/?page_id=29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071024001804/http://iub.edu/~mfawrite/?page_id=29 |url-status=dead |archive-date=24 October 2007 |title=Creative Writing Program: Additional Opportunities |work=Lilly Library holdings |publisher=Indiana University |access-date=4 June 2015 }}</ref>

Nikolai Tolstoy also has an extensive collection of O'Brian manuscript material, including the second half of ''Hussein'', several short stories, much of the reportedly "lost" book on Bestiaries, letters, diaries, journals, notes, poems, book reviews, and several unpublished short stories.<ref name=Tolstoy2005>{{cite book |title=Patrick O'Brian: The making of the novelist |last=Tolstoy |first=Nikolai |author-link=Nikolai Tolstoy |year=2005 |publisher=Arrow |isbn=978-0393061307 |pages=Various }}</ref>

==Works==

===Aubrey–Maturin series===
{{Main|Aubrey–Maturin series}}
#''[[Master and Commander]]'' (1969)
#[[Post Captain (novel)|''Post Captain'']] (1972)
#[[HMS Surprise (novel)|''HMS Surprise'']] (1973)
#''[[The Mauritius Command]]'' (1977)
#[[Desolation Island (novel)|''Desolation Island'']] (1978)
#''[[The Fortune of War]]'' (1979)
#''[[The Surgeon's Mate]]'' (1980)
#''[[The Ionian Mission]]'' (1981)
#''[[Treason's Harbour]]'' (1983)
#''[[The Far Side of the World]]'' (1984)
#''[[The Reverse of the Medal]]'' (1986)
#''[[The Letter of Marque]]'' (1988)
#''[[The Thirteen-Gun Salute]]'' (1989)
#''[[The Nutmeg of Consolation]]'' (1991)
#''[[Clarissa Oakes]]'' (1992) (published as ''The Truelove'' in the US)
#''[[The Wine-Dark Sea]]'' (1993)
#[[The Commodore (novel)|''The Commodore'']] (1994)
#''[[The Yellow Admiral]]'' (1996)
#[[The Hundred Days (novel)|''The Hundred Days'']] (1998)
#''[[Blue at the Mizzen]]'' (1999)
#''[[The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey]]'' (2004) (published as  ''21'' in the US)

===Fiction (non-serial)===
*''[[Caesar (O'Brian novel)|Caesar]]'' (1930, his first book, which led him to be often labelled by critics as the 'boy-[[Thoreau]]')
*''[[Hussein, An Entertainment]]'' (1938)
*''[[Testimonies (novel)|Testimonies]]'' (1952) (First published in the UK as ''Three Bear Witness'' )
*''[[The Catalans]]'' (1953) (''The Frozen Flame'' in the UK)
*''[[The Road to Samarcand]]'' (1954)
*''[[The Golden Ocean]]'' (1956)
*''[[The Unknown Shore]]'' (1959)
*''[[Richard Temple (novel)|Richard Temple]]'' (1962)

===Short story collections===
*''[[Beasts Royal]]'' (1934)
*''[[The Last Pool and Other Stories]]'' (1950)
*''[[The Walker and Other Stories]]'' (1955)
*''[[Lying in the Sun and Other Stories]]'' (1956)
*''[[The Chian Wine and Other Stories]]'' (1974)
*''[[Collected Short Stories (O'Brian book)|Collected Short Stories]]'' (1994) (''The Rendezvous and Other Stories'' in the US)
*''[[The Complete Short Stories]]'' (2023)

===Non-fiction===
*''[[Men-of-War: Life in Nelson's Navy]]'' (1974). {{ISBN|0-393-03858-0}}
*''Pablo Ruiz Picasso: A Biography'' (1976) {{ISBN|978-0-393-31107-5}}
*''[[Joseph Banks: A Life]]'' (1987) The Harvill Press, London. Paperback reprint, 1989. {{ISBN|1-86046-406-8}}
* ''Histoire Naturelle Des Indes: The Drake Manuscript in the Pierpont Morgan Library'' (1996) with Morgan Pierpont and Ruth S Kraemer, Translator, London: W W Norton. {{ISBN|978-0-393-03994-8}}

===Poetry===
*''The Uncertain Land and Other Poems'' (2019)

===French to English translations of other authors' works===
*''Daily Life of the Aztecs on the Eve of the Spanish Conquest'' by [[Jacques Soustelle]]. London, George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (1961)
*''Daily Life in the Time of Jesus'' by [[Henri Daniel-Rops]]. London, George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (1962) 
*''Munich: Peace for Our Time'' by Henri Nogueres. London, George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (1965)
*''The Horsemen'' by [[Joseph Kessel]]. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux (1968)
*''[[Papillon (book)|Papillon]]'' by [[Henri Charrière]].  London, Rupert Hart-Davis (1970)
*''[[Banco (novel)|Banco: The further adventures of Papillon]]'' by [[Henri Charrière]].  New York, William Morrow (1973)
*''Target: Heydrich'' by [[Miroslav Ivanov (writer)]]. London. Hart-Davis, MacGibbon (1973)
*Works by [[Simone de Beauvoir#Translations|Simone de Beauvoir]]
*''De Gaulle The Rebel'' 1890 – 1944 by [[Jean Lacouture]].  London, Collins Harvill (1990) {{ISBN|978-0-393-02699-3}}

===Edited by O'Brian===
*''A Book of Voyages'' (1947) (First American Edition 2013) {{ISBN|978-0-393-08958-5}}

==Published biographies of O'Brian==
Since O'Brian's death, two biographies have been published, though the first was well advanced when he died. The second is by O'Brian's stepson [[Nikolai Tolstoy]].

[[Dean King]]'s ''Patrick O'Brian: A Life Revealed'' was the first biography to document O'Brian's early life under his original name.<ref name=kinglrev/>

Tolstoy's two-volume biography, ''Patrick O'Brian: The Making of the Novelist'' (2004) and ''Patrick O'Brian: A Very Private Life'' (2019) make use of material from the Russ and Tolstoy families and sources, including O'Brian's personal papers and library which Tolstoy inherited on O'Brian's death.<ref name="Tolstoy" />{{sfn|Tolstoy|2019}}

==See also==
* [[Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald|Lord Cochrane "the sea wolf"]] (1775–1860) 
* [[C. S. Forester]] (1899–1966), author of the ''[[Horatio Hornblower]]'' novels
* [[Edward Pellew]] (1757–1833)

== Citations ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== General and cited references ==
* {{Cite book|title=Patrick O'Brian: A Life Revealed |last=King |first=Dean |publisher=[[Hodder and Stoughton]] |year=2000 |location=London|isbn=0-340-792558}}
* {{Cite book|first=Dean H |last=King|title=In Search of Patrick O'Brian|publisher=Holt (Henry) & Co, US|year=2001|isbn=0-8050-5977-6}} (US edition of the above book)
* {{Cite book|title=Patrick O'Brian: The Making of the Novelist |last=Tolstoy |first=Nikolai |publisher=[[Penguin Random House|Century]] |year=2004 |location=London|isbn=0-7126-7025-4| url=https://archive.org/details/patrickobrianmak0000tols }}
* {{Cite book | first=Nikolai |last=Tolstoy | title=Patrick O'Brian: The Making of the Novelist 1914–1949 | publisher=W W Norton & Co Ltd | year=2005 | isbn=0-393-06130-2}} (US edition of the above book)
* {{Cite book|title=Patrick O'Brian: A Very Private Life |last=Tolstoy |first=Nikolai |publisher=[[HarperCollins|William Collins]] |year=2019 |location=London|isbn=978-0-00-835058-1}}

Also of importance when studying O'Brian's works:

* {{Cite book |editor-last=Cunningham |editor-first=A E |year=1994 |title=Patrick O'Brian: Critical Appreciations and a Bibliography |publisher=British Library |isbn=0-7123-1071-1 }}
** {{cite book |editor-last=Cunningham |editor-first=Arthur E |year=1994 |title=Patrick O'Brian: Critical Essays and a Bibliography |url=https://archive.org/details/patrickobrian00patr |publisher=W. W. Norton |isbn=978-0393036268 }} (US edition of above book)
* {{Cite book |last=O'Neill |first=Richard |author-link=Richard O'Neill (author) |year=2003 |title=Patrick O'Brian's Navy: The Illustrated Companion to Jack Aubrey's World |publisher=Salamander Books |isbn=0-7624-1540-1}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Author.aspx?ID=4929 Patrick O'Brian Home Page] – introduction to the author and his books, by his US publisher.
* {{cite journal| url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1628/the-art-of-fiction-no-142-patrick-obrian| title=Patrick O'Brian, The Art of Fiction No. 142 |last=Becker |first=Stephen |journal=The Paris Review | year=1995 | volume=Summer 1995 | issue=135 }}
* [http://wiki.hmssurprise.org/index.php/Main_Page WikiPOBia] – wiki to annotate the written works of Patrick O'Brian.
* [http://www.cannonade.net Patrick O'Brian Mapping Project] – A Google Maps mashup project to map all 21 books in the [[Aubrey–Maturin series]].
* A Gunroom guide to [https://web.archive.org/web/20120815231143/http://www.prismnet.com/gibbonsb/pob/ Patrick O'Brian Web Resources] – comprehensive annotated link list
* [http://hmssurprise.org/ The Gunroom of HMS ''Surprise'']: resource and discussion site. 
* [http://www.hmssurprise.org/News/Daisya_obriani.html ''Daisya obriani''] – Lesser Weevil named for O'Brian
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100108084432/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/6916742/Patrick-OBrian.html Patrick O'Brian's ''Daily Telegraph'' obituary]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Obrian, Patrick}}
[[Category:Works by Patrick O'Brian| ]]
[[Category:1914 births]]
[[Category:2000 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century English translators]]
[[Category:20th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:English historical novelists]]
[[Category:English male novelists]]
[[Category:English people of German descent]]
[[Category:English people of Irish descent]]
[[Category:French–English translators]]
[[Category:Nautical historical novelists]]
[[Category:People from Chalfont St Peter]]
[[Category:Writers about the Age of Sail]]
[[Category:Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period]]
[[Category:Writers of historical fiction set in the modern age]]