As I Was Going Down Sackville Street

First US edition

As I Was Going Down Sackville Street: A Phantasy in Fact is a book by Oliver St. John Gogarty. Published in 1937 by Rich & Cowan in the UK and by Reynal and Hitchcock in the US, it was Gogarty's first extended prose work and was described by its author as "something new in form: neither a 'memoir' nor a novel".[1] Its title is taken from an obscure Dublin ballad of the same name, which was "rescued from oblivion and obloquy" by Gogarty's erstwhile friend James Joyce, who recited it for Gogarty in 1904 after hearing it in inner city Dublin.[2]

The book features many of Gogarty's Dublin acquaintances and well-known contemporaries as characters. Shortly after its publication, it became the subject of a highly publicised libel lawsuit.

  1. ^ Carens, James (1979). Surpassing Wit. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 122.
  2. ^ Lyons, John Benignus (1980). Oliver St. John Gogarty: The Man of Many Talents. Flint Hill, Virginia: Blackwater Publications. p. 176.