A trip to a local used bookstore last week turned up a book called The Quiet Man And Other Stories by Maurice Walsh. I had always assumed the movie was an original, but I guess not. Mine is a paperback, printed in 1992.
The story of The Quiet Man in this book is very different from the movie: Hollywood used it as the bare-bones idea for a film and went hog-wild (and I don’t mean that as a criticism, 'cause I love the movie). Many of the movie characters don’t even exist in the short story and the ones that do are quite different. There are 4 other longish short stories in the collection, and they share characters freely between them. A real Irish flavor ties everything together and I enjoyed the stories immensely. This seems to be a fairly rare find, so good luck in your search.
Thanks, brewerpaul. The book is available at Amazon. I’m going to send for it. 
http://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Man-Other-Stories/dp/1570981396
It’s also available at AmazonUK
Old editions of this book are rare. Take a look on amazon.com to see what used book stores are asking for these. You may be pleasantly surprised!
Oops! Didn’t notice at first that you said paperback. Still a great find!
Please tell me that Trooper Thornton is still Trooper Thornton. Any specific mention of Ward Bond or Barry Fitzgerald? 
Philo
Especially for $3.95!
Ward Bond was the priest, right? No, no mention of him. There IS a character named Micheleen O’Flynn, but he bears no resemblence in any way to the Barry Fitzgerald character. I kept waiting for those two terrific characters to appear and was disappointed when they didn’t. In most ways, I really like the movie better than the short story,but as background and for a good feel of Ireland during and after the Black and Tan wars, the book is excellent.
Paul, I hope you realize that your subject line has likely excluded Dubhlinn from what is, in truth, a literary discussion and therefore right up his alley. 
I have great memories of The Quiet Man. My wife wouldn’t watch it simply because she thought it was “just another John Wayne movie.” Then on our first overseas trip together (to Ireland, naturally), we were in our B&B in Glendalough on a cold rainy night and there was a VCR in the room, with lots of movies to pick from. Since she had nowhere else to go, she watched the movie with me and ended up loving it. Now we watch it every September, and remember that wonderful rainy night in Ireland.
Darvis, that’s a wonderful story. And it reminds me that I should rent it to watch with my own wife - I haven’t seen the movie in years, and she never has.
I wrote a poem with a reference to The Quiet Man in it.
Thought I’d share.
Thanks, Dana, I bet your wife would really enjoy the movie as well. Hey, it’s a cultural experience.
It’s definitely the most “un John Wayne-like” John Wayne movie I’ve ever seen.
I love John Wayne. Reminds me of my grandfather. They’ve been playing that movie a lot recently, I think because of the lead up to the awards last night.
I read the wikipedia article on it a while back, and the price the rights for the short story sold for was something obscene like $10 or something!
At the risk of annoying Dub (as if he’s likely to look at this thread!), I love that movie.
buddhu dons troll hat
Rural Ireland is, quite often, exactly like a mixture of The Quiet Man and Father Ted. 
Furtively slips troll hat back in pocket