born Jan. 31, 1905, Pottsville, Pa., U.S.
died April 11, 1970, Princeton, N.J.
U.S. novelist and short-story writer.
O'Hara developed the objective, straightforward style he used in his fiction while working as a critic and reporter in New York City. His works stand as a social history of upwardly mobile Americans of the 1920s through the 1940s. Among them are the popular novels Appointment in Samarra (1934); Butterfield 8 (1935; film, 1960); Pal Joey (1940), adapted as a musical; Ten North Frederick (1955; film, 1958); and From the Terrace (1958; film, 1960).