A Brother in Spirit

I was moved by the story on Christopher Nolan, the young Irish author and playwright (“A Body Bound, An Imagination Soaring Free,” by Frances Haines, Jan. 22).

There are remarkable similarities between Nolan and another author from Dublin, Christy Brown.

How could the article omit reference to Brown in light of the fact that Haines writes that Nolan “wonders what happened to people like him before now”?

As a result of being born with cerebral palsy, Brown was unable to walk, talk or feed himself unaided, and he never went to school. He had the use of only his left foot. Using the little toe of that foot he typed his excellent novel “Down All the Days.” (The New York Times called him a genius.)

What has become of Brown, I do not know; I hope he is well.

As for Mr. Nolan’s wonderings, I can only tell you that I came across a copy of Brown’s novel at a book store recently; it was in a sales bin . . . 99 cents.

AL ALU

Los Angeles

An L.A. Times story last March noted the similarities of Nolan and Brown, one of 22 children of a Dublin slum family. “Down All the Days,” published in 1970, was an international best seller that earned the author $370,000. At age 49, in 1981, Brown choked to death as he and his wife ate dinner at home in Britain. He died on Christopher Nolan’s birthday.