SOURCE: "Mary Lavin, 83; Prize-Winning Irish Author of Novels, Stories," in Los Angeles Times, March 27, 1996, p. A15.

[In the obituary below, the critic comments on Lavin's literary career.]

Mary Lavin, who depicted the narrow subtleties of Irish small town life in short stories and novels, has died. She was 83.

The prize-winning writer died Monday in a Dublin nursing home.

In a Los Angeles Times review of a book about Irish women writers in 1990, Thomas Cahill characterized Lavin's work as representing "surely the boldest tradition of women writers in all literature.

Born in East Walpole, Mass., Lavin moved to Ireland as a child and was educated at Loreto College and University College in Dublin.

In 1942, she published her first collection of short stories, Tales from Bective Bridge. It won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and established her literary reputation.

Spurred by its success, she wrote prolifically. Her 19 collections of...