Leonard Wibberley

In 1915, Leonard Wibberley was born in Dublin, the youngest of six children. His family moved to Cork and, until the age of eight, he was educated in Irish at Ring College, Waterford, Ireland. After moving to England, he attended Abbey House, Romsey, Hampshire and then Cardinal Vaughan's Memorial School in London.[3] His father, Thomas Wibberley, FRSA, Professor of Agricultural Research, University College, Cork[4] (one of the three constituents of the National University of Ireland) and Queen's University Belfast, was an experimental agronomist. He wrote several books contending his methods and inventions would allow the UK, absent empire, to feed itself (see Farming on Factory Lines: continuous cropping for the large farmer [London, 1919]). In 1921, the elder Wibberley was made a Fellow of the Linnean Society. Leonard's second name, "Patrick", was his confirmation name; his third, which he used as one of several noms de plume, was his matronymic, from his school-teacher mother, Shinaid O'Connor".[5] On his father's sudden death at age fifty in 1930, leaving a widow and six children [6] Wibberley was obliged to leave school and began a long career in newspapers, in London, as copy boy for the Sunday Dispatch (1931–32), then reporter for the Sunday Express (1932–34) and Daily Mirror (London, 1934–36), and was also assistant London editor for the Malayan Straits Times and the Singapore Free Press. He then emigrated for Trinidad, where he held several jobs, first, briefly, as editor of the Trinidad Evening News (1936), thereafter as an oilfield worker for Trinidad Leaseholds Ltd (1936–43), before immigrating to New York City in 1943. There he was initially employed by Walsh Kaiser Shipyards, but soon found important jobs in journalism again, as Cable Dispatch Editor for the Associated Press (New York City) during the war years of 1943–44 and New York Correspondent and Bureau Chief for the London Evening News (1944–46).[7]

In 1947 Wibberley moved permanently to California, working in newspapers, first (1947) as city editor of the Turlock Daily Journal, then as editor of the Independent Journal, San Rafael (1947–49),[8] next as copy editor then reporter, for the Los Angeles Times (1950–54). While working for the Times he began his novel-writing career. At age 37, he published his first novel,The King's Beard (1952). Leaving the newspaper business, he settled permanently in Hermosa Beach, California, as a full-time author, publishing 100 more books, at a rate of at least one a year and averaging more than three. Many were with three publishers: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; William Morrow; Dodd, Mead and Company. The best-known of Wibberley's books, The Mouse that Roared, was kept in print for some time by Bantam Books and then Four Walls Eight Windows. Fifty of his book publications are available as e-books.

Wibberley took part in plays, did local radio readings and wrote a weekly syndicated column for the San Francisco Chronicle, 'The Wibberley Papers'.[9] His writing activities included unpublished and uncompleted projects, such as an unfinished 1958 collaboration with his friend Rosalind Russell on a musical script adaptation from his McGillicuddy McGotham, titled "Little Mac" (note picture above).[10] His two marriages, in Trinidad with Olga Morton-Gittens, and in California with Hazel Holton, produced seven children, including film writer Cormac Wibberley among six by the latter.[11]

Wibberley died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, California, aged 68, on 22 November 1983.[11]

Wibberley donated manuscripts and proofs of many of his works to The Leonard Wibberley Archive of the library collections of the University of Southern California, where they are available, but not online.[12]

In 1993, Borgo Press published a posthumous book of his last short writings.[13]

• Something to Read: A personal selection from his writing by this thoughtful, humorous man. New York: Ives Washburn, 1959

• Christopher and Hazel Wibberley (eds.) (1993). Shamrocks and Sea Silver, and Other Illuminations. San Bernardino: Borgo Press. ISBN 978-0893704025.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)

• Leonard Wibberley (official author website)
• The Wibberley Stories compilation of radio readings of short pieces in 1983

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