Series 8 - Elizabeth Curran Cooper memoir

11pp

Typed transcription and descriptive information by Professor Kerby Miller.

Elizabeth Cooper/Nell Curran was born in 1896 in County Leitrim, and was primarily raised in County Monaghan. She moved with her family to Dublin around 1910, and she first emigrated to England around 1912, returned to Ireland and married in 1919, returning again to England. She eventually emigrated to America around 1926. Cooper Curran wrote her short memoir, 'The Life of Elizabeth Cooper,' in 1984 when she was 88 years old. Per Kerby A. Miller: 'Cooper/Curran's memoir covers her entire life, from 1896 to 1984, but by far the major focus is on the decades in Ireland and England, prior to her marriage in 1919 and her emigration in 1925-26. Indeed, her memoir's largest section is devoted to what she called the "third part of her life," which she spent in England in c.1912-1919, and which encompassed her courtship- clearly what she considered her most important experience (i.e., her "flashbulb memories"). Her coverage of his family, childhood, and schooling in Leitrim and, especially, Monaghan is adequate but terse. It's remarkable that, unlike most memoirists, she never mentions her parents' deaths or the fates of her surviving siblings.' Series contains: Kerby A. Miller's typed transcript of the memoir, a photocopy of the original typed memoir, and Miller's research notes.