A. J. Cronin
Archibald Joseph Cronin (
July 19,
1896â€"
January 9,
1981) was a
Scottish novelist who is remembered chiefly as the author of
The Citadel and
The Keys of the Kingdom, both of which were made into
Oscar-nominated films. The
Dr. Finlay character originated in Cronin's 1935 short story, "Country Doctor," which led to further stories that were collected in
The Adventures of a Black Bag. These provided the basis for the long-running
BBC television and radio series entitled
Dr. Finlay's Casebook.
Born in
Cardross,
Dunbartonshire (now in
Argyll and Bute), Scotland, Cronin was the only child of a
Protestant mother, Jessie Montgomerie Cronin, and a
Catholic father, Patrick Cronin, and would later write of young men from similarly mixed backgrounds. He was a precocious student at
Dumbarton Academy and won many writing competitions. Due to his exceptional abilities, he was awarded a scholarship to study
medicine at the
University of Glasgow. It was there that he met his future wife, Agnes Mary Gibson, who was also a medical student. He graduated with honours from medical school in 1919 and went on to earn additional degrees, including his
MRCP.
Cronin trained as a doctor in various hospitals before serving as a
Royal Navy surgeon during
World War I, like the medical hero of his novel
Shannon's Way. After the war he set up a practice in a
mining area of
South Wales, and in 1924, he was appointed Medical Inspector of Mines. He drew on his experiences researching the deleterious effects of the mining industry on the workers' health for his later novels
The Citadel, set in Wales, and
The Stars Look Down, set in northeastern
England. He subsequently moved to London and had a thriving practice on
Harley Street. While on holiday in the
Scottish Highlands, Cronin wrote his first novel,
Hatter's Castle, which was a great success. It tells the story of a family brought to ruin by the
megalomania and ruthlessness of its patriarch.
Many of Cronin's books were
bestsellers that were translated into numerous languages. His strengths included his
narrative skill and his powers of acute observation and graphic description. Some of his novels and stories draw on his medical career, dramatically mixing
realism,
romance, and
social criticism.
The Citadel is said to have contributed to the establishment of the
National Health Service in
Great Britain by exposing the injustice and incompetence of medical practice at the time.
In the late
1930s Cronin moved to the
United States with his wife and three sons, eventually settling in
New Canaan, Connecticut. Ultimately, he returned to Europe, residing in
Lucerne and
Montreux,
Switzerland for the last twenty-five years of his life and continuing to write into his eighties. He died on
January 9,
1981, in
Montreux.
Many of the following works were made into films or televised series:
Hatter's Castle (1931), ISBN 0450034860
Three Loves (1932), ISBN 0450022021
Grand Canary (1933), ISBN 0450020479
The Stars Look Down (1935), ISBN 045000497X
The Citadel (1937) ISBN 0450010414
Vigil in the Night (serial, 1939)
Jupiter Laughs (play, 1940); filmed as
Shining Victory (1941)
The Keys of the Kingdom (1941), ISBN 0450010422
The Adventures of a Black Bag (1943, rev. 1969), ISBN 045000306X
The Green Years (1944), ISBN 0450018202
Shannon's Way (1948), ISBN 0450033139
The Spanish Gardener (1950), ISBN 0450011089
Adventures in Two Worlds (autobiography, 1952), ISBN 0450031950
Beyond This Place (1953), ISBN 0450017087; 1959 U.S. film titled
Web of EvidenceA Thing of Beauty (1956), ISBN 0515033790; also published as
Crusader's Tomb (1956), ISBN 0450013944
The Northern Light (1958), ISBN 0450015386
The Innkeeper's Wife (1958)
The Cronin Omnibus (1958) ISBN 0575058366
The Native Doctor; also published as
An Apple in Eden (1959)
The Judas Tree (1961), ISBN 0450013936
A Song of Sixpence (1964), ISBN 0450033120
A Pocketful of Rye (1969), ISBN 0450390101
Desmonde (1975), ISBN 0316161632; also published as
The Minstrel Boy (1975), ISBN 0450032795
Lady with Carnations (1976), ISBN 0450036316
Gracie Lindsay (1978), ISBN 0450045366
Doctor Finlay of Tannochbrae (1978) ISBN 0450042464
Dr. Finlay: Further Adventures of a Black Bag (2003) ISBN 0563494328
