Life
A.M. Sullivan grew up in the northern New Jersey mining town of Oxford. His formal education ended with his graduation from St. Benedict’s Prep School in Newark in 1913. In 1919, he married Catherine Veronica McNamee and remained with her until her death in 1968. She bore him two daughters, Catherine and Mary Rose. The couple lived in St. Albans, New York until moving to Montclair, New Jersey in 1953. Throughout this time, they summered in an 1840s house on the Musconetcong River near Hackettstown, New Jersey. This river and the wooded hills of northern New Jersey provided much of the inspiration for his poetry, which drew heavily on themes of nature.
Proud of his Irish heritage, Mr. Sullivan was a board member of the Irish-American Historical Society. He made several trips to Ireland throughout his later life and became proficient in Gaelic. In recognition of his literary achievement, A.M. Sullivan received honorary doctorates from Montclair State College and St. Edward’s University. Many of his papers and a collection of his poetry books are held at Syracuse University. He died in Montclair on June 10, 1980.
Read more about this topic: Aloysius Michael Sullivan
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