Herminie Templeton Kavanagh

Herminie Templeton Kavanagh (6 May 1861 – 30 October 1933) was a British writer, most known for her short stories.

Early life and family Born Minnie Allen McGibney at the British army barracks in Aldershot, England, on 6 May 1861, she was the second of seven children born to Major George McGibney from Templemichael, County Longford, Ireland, and Caroline Allen from Coventry, England.

Her first marriage was to vaudeville performer John Templeton. An article in the Chicago Tribune later stated that she had been abandoned by her first husband in Chicago circa 1893. Accounts differ on how they met, as well as where and when they married, ranging from 1905 to 1908 in Dublin or Iowa.

She and Judge Kavanagh lived together in Chicago and Ocean Grove, New Jersey.

Works Her best known work, Darby O'Gill and the Good People , was first published as a series of stories under the name Herminie Templeton in McClure's magazine in 1901–1902, before being published as a book in the United States in 1903. A second edition, published a year before her death, was under the name Herminie T. Kavanagh. The Good People in the title refers to the fairies in Irish mythology; the English translation of aoine maithe is good people.

Her second published book, Ashes of Old Wishes and Other Darby O'Gill Tales , was published in 1926. In 1959, Walt Disney released a film based on these two books, called Darby O'Gill and the Little People.

She also wrote two plays, The Color Sergeant (1903), and Swift-Wing of the Cherokee (1903).

Death She died of a heart ailment in Chicago on 30 October 1933, aged 72. She was buried in New York, her former home.