Edna O’Brien: Love, Loss and Literature

Edna O'Brien's first novel, "The Country Girls," was banned in Ireland, and burned in her own home parish.  The year was 1960, and young Irish women of that era were NOT supposed to reflect on their lot in life, or harbor sexual desires. But Edna O'Brien had one goal as a young writer - to tell the truth. Decades later, her compatriots finally came to view her the way the rest of the world did: as a trailblazer, and as one of Ireland's greatest living writers. Forty plus books and plays later, truth-telling is still Edna O'Brien's goal. She talks here, at age 91, about her life and her love of words. 

(c ) American Academy of Achievement 2021