In America, Colum took up children's writing and published a number of collections of stories for children, beginning with
The King of lreland's Son (1916). Three of his books for children were awarded retrospective citations for the
Newbery Honor. A contract for children's literature with
Macmillan Publishers made him financially secure for the rest of his life.
In
1922 he was commissioned to write versions of
Hawaiian folklore for young people. This resulted in the publication of three volumes of his versions of tales from the island. He also started writing novels. These include
Castle Conquer (1923) and
The Flying Swans (1937). The Colums spent the years from 1930 to 1933 living in
Paris and
Nice, where Padraic renewed his friendship with
James Joyce and became involved in the transcription of
Finnegans Wake.
After their time in France, the couple moved to
New York City, where they both did some teaching at
Columbia University and [C.C.N.Y]. Colum was a prolific author and published a total of 61 books, not counting his plays.
He adopted the form of
Noh drama in his later plays.
Molly died in
1957 and Pádraic finished
Our Friend James Joyce, which they had worked on together before her death. It was published in
1958. Colum divided his later years between the United States and Ireland. In 1961 the Catholic Library Association awarded him the
Regina Medal. He died in
Enfield, Connecticut, aged 90, and was buried in
St. Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton.
Asked how to say his name, he told
The Literary Digest the last name was the same as the word
column. "In my first name, the first
a has the sound of
au. The ordinary pronunciation in Irish is
pau'drig." (Charles Earle Funk,
What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.)
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