James Stephens (author)

[2] He attended school with his adoptive brothers Thomas and Richard (Tom and Dick) Collins before graduating as a solicitor's clerk.

They competed and won several athletic competitions despite James' tiny stature (he stood 4 ft 10 in (1.47 m) in his socks).

His retellings are marked by a rare combination of humour and lyricism (Deirdre, (a legendary figure), and Irish Fairy Tales are often especially praised).

[4] Stephens's influential account of the 1916 Easter Rising, Insurrection in Dublin, describes the effect of the deaths by execution of his friend Thomas MacDonagh and others as being "like watching blood oozing from under a door".

Joyce, who was concerned about his ability to finish what later became Finnegans Wake, proposed that Stephens assist him, with the authorship credited to JJ & S (for "Jameses Joyce & Stephens", but also a pun on the popular Jameson Irish whiskey, made by John Jameson & Sons).