Constance Frick Irwin

Background

Constance Frick Irwin was born on May 11, 1913, in Evansville, Indiana, United States. She was a daughter of Herman and Wilhelmina (Minnie) Lauenstein Frick. She had a brother.

Education

Constance Frick Irwin attended Benjamin Bosse High School. In 1934 she received her Bachelor of Arts degree and Master of Arts degree in 1941 from Indiana University, and her Bachelor of Science degree in library science in 1947 from Columbia University.

Career

Constance Frick Irwin was the first Evansville woman to join the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, serving with the United States Naval Reserve Intelligence (1942-1945) and attaining the rank of lieutenant commander. In 1937 she began her career as a librarian at Reitz High School, Evansville, Indiana, and served until 1942.

Following her military service, she was a librarian at Evansville College (now University of Evansville) in 1946 and a book editor for Columbia University Press in 1947. She returned to her position as a librarian at Reitz High School in 1947 until her marriage in 1954. In 1961 she joined the faculty at the University of Iowa as an instructor and was promoted to assistant professor of library science in 1963, serving until 1967.

Her first book (as Constance Frick) was The Dramatic Criticism of George Jean Nathan (1943), followed by a series of novels written for the juvenile market as "C. H. Frick," including Tourney Team (about a Reitz High School basketball team; 1954), Five against the Odds (1955), Patch (1957), The Comeback Guy (1961), and other titles as Constance Frick, including Jonathan D (1959), Fair Gods and Stone Faces (1963), Gudrid's Saga (1974), and Strange Footprints on the Land: Vikings in America (1980).

Achievements

• Constance Frick Irwin is best remebered as the author of The Dramatic Criticism of George Jean Nathan and many others. Her works received high praise from critics. The Connie Irwin Scholarship Fund was established in her honor at the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Strange Footprints on the Land: Vikings in America

    (This book examines the detective work historians are perf...)

    1980
  • Patch

    (This book is of quality condition with funds used to supp...)

    1957
  • The Dramatic Criticism Of George Jean Nathan 1943
  • Tourney Team 1954
  • The Comeback Guy 1961
  • Jonathan D 1959
  • Fair Gods and Stone Faces 1963
  • Gudrid's Saga 1974

Membership

Constance Frick Irwin was a member of the Authors Guild, the National League of American Pen Women, the nineteenth Century Club, Phi Beta Kappa, Delta Kappa Gamma, Pi Lambda Theta, Alpha Chi Omega, and Junior League.

Connections

In 1954 Constance Frick Irwin married William R. Irwin, a State University of Iowa (later University of Iowa) English professor.

Father:

Herman Frick

Mother:

Wilhelmina Lauenstein Frick

Spouse:

William Robert Irwin

References

• Contemporary Authors
  2010