| George Alfred Henty | |
| Birth Date: | 1832 12, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Trumpington, Cambridgeshire, England |
| Death Place: | Weymouth, Dorset, England |
| Occupation: | Fiction writer, war correspondent |
| Period: | Late 19th century |
| Genre: | Literature |
George Alfred Henty (8 December 1832 – 16 November 1902) was an English novelist and war correspondent.[1] [2] He is best known for his works of adventure fiction and historical fiction, including The Dragon & The Raven (1886), For The Temple (1888), Under Drake's Flag (1883) and In Freedom's Cause (1885).
G. A. Henty was born in Trumpington, near Cambridge but spent some of his childhood in Canterbury.[3] He was a sickly child who had to spend long periods in bed. During his frequent illnesses he became an avid reader and developed a wide range of interests which he carried into adulthood. He attended Westminster School, London, as a half-boarder when he was fourteen, and later Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was a keen sportsman.
He left the university early without completing his degree to volunteer for the (Army) Hospital Commissariat of the Purveyors Department when the Crimean War began. He was sent to the Crimea and while there he witnessed the appalling conditions under which the British soldier had to fight. His letters home were filled with vivid descriptions of what he saw. His father was impressed by his letters and sent them to the Morning Advertiser newspaper which printed them. This initial writing success was a factor in Henty's later decision to accept the offer to become a special correspondent, the early name for journalists now better known as war correspondents.
Shortly before resigning from the army as a captain in 1859 he married Elizabeth Finucane. The couple had four children. Elizabeth died in 1865 after a long illness and shortly after her death Henty began writing articles for the Standard newspaper. In 1866 the newspaper sent him as their special correspondent to report on the Austro-Italian War where he met Giuseppe Garibaldi. He went on to cover the 1868 British punitive expedition to Abyssinia, the Franco-Prussian War, the Ashanti War, the Carlist Rebellion in Spain and the Turco-Serbian War.[4] He also witnessed the opening of the Suez Canal and travelled to Palestine, Russia and India.
Henty was a strong supporter of the British Empire all his life; according to literary critic Kathryn Castle: "Henty ... exemplified the ethos of the [British Empire], and glorified in its successes".[5] Henty's ideas about politics were influenced by writers such as Sir Charles Dilke and Thomas Carlyle.
Henty once related in an interview how his storytelling skills grew out of tales told after dinner to his children. He wrote his first children's book, Out on the Pampas in 1868, naming the book's main characters after his children. The book was published by Griffith and Farran in November 1870 with a title page date of 1871. While most of the 122 books he wrote were for children and published by Blackie and Son of London, he also wrote adult novels, non-fiction such as The March to Magdala and Those Other Animals, short stories for the likes of The Boy's Own Paper and edited the Union Jack, a weekly boy's magazine.
Henty was "the most popular Boy's author of his day."[6] Blackie, who published his children's fiction in the UK, and W. G. Blackie estimated in February 1952 that they were producing about 150,000 Henty books a year at the height of his popularity,[7] [8] and stated that their records showed they had produced over three and a half million Henty books. He further estimated that considering the US and other overseas authorised and pirated editions, a total of 25 million was not impossible. Arnold notes this estimate and that there have been further editions since that estimate was made.[9]
His children's novels typically revolved around a boy or young man living in troubled times. These ranged from the Punic War to more recent conflicts such as the Napoleonic Wars or the American Civil War. Henty's heroes – which occasionally included young ladies – are uniformly intelligent, courageous, honest and resourceful with plenty of 'pluck' yet are also modest.[10] These themes have made Henty's novels popular today among many conservative Christians and homeschoolers.[9]
Henty usually researched his novels by ordering several books on the subject he was writing on from libraries, and consulting them before beginning writing. Some of his books were written about events (such as the Crimean War) that he witnessed himself; hence, these books are written with greater detail as Henty drew upon his first-hand experiences of people, places, and events.[10]
On 16 November 1902, Henty died aboard his yacht in Weymouth Harbour, Dorset, leaving unfinished his last novel, By Conduct and Courage, which was completed by his son Captain C.G. Henty.[9]
Henty is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.[11]
G. A. Henty's commercial popularity encouraged other writers to try writing juvenile adventure stories in his style; "Herbert Strang", Henry Everett McNeil, Percy F. Westerman and Captain Frederick Sadleir Brereton all wrote novels in "the Henty tradition", often incorporating then-contemporary themes such as aviation and First World War combat.[12] By the 1930s, however, interest in Henty's work was declining in Britain, and hence few children's writers there looked to his work as a model.[13]
Henty wrote 122 works of historical fiction and all first editions had the date printed at the foot of the title page.[14] Several short stories published in book form are included in this total, with the stories taken from previously published full-length novels. The dates given below are those printed at the foot of the title page of the very first editions in the United Kingdom. It is a common misconception that American Henty titles were published before those of the UK. All Henty titles bar one were published in the UK before those of America.
The simple explanation for this error of judgement is that Charles Scribner's Sons of New York dated their Henty first editions for the current year. The first UK editions published by Blackie were always dated for the coming year, to have them looking fresh for Christmas. The only Henty title published in book form in America before the UK book was In the Hands of the Cave-Dwellers dated 1900 and published by Harper of New York. This title was published in book form in the UK in 1903, although the story itself had already been published in England prior to the first American edition, in The Boy's Own Annual.
A book published in 1884 in the "Fireside Henty Series" called Forest and Frontier was discovered to be by Thomas M. Newson.[15]
In the late 1990s, a number of American publishers, such as Polyglot Press (Philadelphia, PA), PrestonSpeed, and the Lost Classics Book Company, began reprinting Henty's books and advocating their usage for conservative homeschoolers.[16] Reprints of all Henty's works are available from modern day British and American publishers. One such publisher and major modern advocate of Henty is the American scientist (biochemist), homeschool curriculum publisher, and Oregon State Senator Arthur B. Robinson, who promotes the use of Henty's books as a supplement to his self-teaching homeschool curriculum.[17]
Henty's views have been contentious; some writers have accused Henty's novels of being aggressively and obstinately nationalist and reactionary in such books as True to the Old Flag (1885) which features a Loyalist protagonist fighting in the American War of Independence,[18] and In the Reign of Terror (1888) and No Surrender! A Tale of the Rising in La Vendée (1900) which are strongly hostile to the French Revolution.[19]
Henty's novel With Lee in Virginia has a protagonist who fights on the side of the Confederacy against the Union.[20]
Henty's popularity amongst homeschoolers is not without controversy.[21] Quoting from the chapter of By Sheer Pluck called "The Negro Character" ("like children"), American television host and political commentator Rachel Maddow called Henty's writings "spectacularly racist".[22] [23] [24] Carpenter and Pritchard note that while "Henty's work is indeed full of racial (and class) stereotypes", he sometimes created sympathetic ethnic minority characters, such as the Indian servant who marries a white woman in With Clive in India, and point out Henty admired the Turkish Empire. Some even accuse Henty of holding blacks in utter contempt, and this is expressed in novels such as By Sheer Pluck: A Tale of the Ashanti War and A Roving Commission, or, Through the Black Insurrection at Hayti. Kathryne S. McDorman states Henty disliked blacks and also, in Henty's fiction, that "Boers and Jews were considered equally ignoble".
In By Sheer Pluck: A Tale of the Ashanti War, Mr. Goodenough, an entomologist remarks to the hero: “They [Negroes] are just like children ... They are always either laughing or quarrelling. They are good-natured and passionate, indolent, but will work hard for a time; clever up to a certain point, densely stupid beyond. The intelligence of an average negro is about equal to that of a European child of ten years old. ... They are fluent talkers, but their ideas are borrowed. They are absolutely without originality, absolutely without inventive power. Living among white men, their imitative faculties enable them to attain a considerable amount of civilization. Left alone to their own devices they retrograde into a state little above their native savagery.”
In the Preface to his novel A Roving Commission (1900) Henty claims "the condition of the negroes in Hayti has fallen to the level of that of the savage African tribes" and argues "unless some strong white power should occupy the island and enforce law and order" this situation will not change.[25] In the novel Facing Death: A Tale of the Coal Mines Henty comes down against strikes and has the working class hero of the novel, Jack Simpson, quell a strike among coal miners.[26]
A review by Deirdre H. McMahon in Studies of the Novel in 2010 refers to his novels as jingoist and racist and states that during the previous decade "Numerous reviews in right-wing and conservative Christian journals and websites applaud Henty’s texts as model readings and thoughtful presents for children, especially boys. These reviews often ignore Henty’s racism by packaging his version of empire as refreshingly heroic and patriotic."[27]
In 1888, on the bookjacket for Captain Bayley's Heir, The Times wrote that Henty's character in With Lee in Virginia, "bravely proving his sympathy with the slaves of brutal masters" escapes through "the devotion of a black servant and of a runaway slave whom he had assisted". The reviewer recommended the book.[28]
| Titles | Title Page Dates | Publication Dates | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Search for a Secret | 1867 | ||
| The March to Magdala | 1868 | ||
| All But Lost, Volumes I, II and III | 1869 | ||
| Out on the Pampas: The Young Settlers | 1870 | ||
| The Young Franc-Tireurs and Their Adventure in the Franco-Prussian War | 1872 | ||
| The March to Coomassie | 1874 | ||
| The Young Buglers, A Tale of the Peninsular War | 1880 | ||
| The Cornet of Horse: A Tale of Marlborough's Wars | 1881 | ||
| In Times of Peril: A Tale of India | 1881 | ||
| Facing Death, The Hero of the Vaughan Pit – A Tale of the Coal Mines | 1882 | 31 May 1882 | |
| Winning His Spurs: A Tale of the Crusades (aka Boy Knight) | 1882 | ||
| Friends Though Divided: A Tale of the Civil War | 1883 | ||
| Jack Archer: A Tale of the Crimea | 1883 | ||
| Under Drake's Flag: A Tale of the Spanish Main | 1883 | 31 August 1882 | |
| By Sheer Pluck: A Tale of the Ashanti War | 1884 | 28 September 1883 | |
| With Clive in India: The Beginnings of an Empire | 1884 | 24 September 1883 | |
| In Freedom's Cause: A Story of Wallace and Bruce | 1885 | 16 July 1884 | |
| St. George For England: A Tale of Cressy and Poitiers | 1885 | 27 August 1884 | |
| True to the Old Flag: A Tale of the American War of Independence | 1885 | 2 August 1884 | |
| The Young Colonists: A Tale of the Zulu and Boer Wars | 1885 | ||
| The Dragon and the Raven, or The Days of King Alfred | 1886 | 2 May 1885 | |
| For Name and Fame: To Cabul with Roberts | 1886 | 2 May 1885 | |
| The Lion of the North: A Tale of Gustavus Adolphus and the Wars of Religion | 1886 | 19 August 1885 | |
| Through the Fray: A Tale of the Luddite Riots | 1886 | 5 September 1885 | |
| Yarns on the Beach: A Bundle of Tales | 1886 | 15 September 1885 | |
| The Bravest of the Brave, or, With Peterborough in Spain | 1887 | 1 June 1886 | |
| A Final Reckoning: A Tale of Bush Life in Australia | 1887 | 8 June 1886 | |
| The Sovereign Reader: Scenes from the Life and Reign of Queen Victoria | 1887 | 26 August 1887 | |
| The Young Carthaginian, A Story of the Time of Hannibal | 1887 | 8 June 1886 | |
| With Wolfe in Canada: The Winning of a Continent | 1887 | 18 May 1886 | |
| Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Tale of Fontenoy and Culloden | 1888 | 6 June 1887 | |
| For the Temple: A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem | 1888 | 19 August 1887 | |
| Gabriel Allen M.P. | 1888 | ||
| 1888 | 8 July 1887 | ||
| Orange and Green: A Tale of the Boyne and Limerick | 1888 | 2 July 1887 | |
| Sturdy and Strong: How George Andrews Made His Way | 1888 | 27 July 1887 | |
| Captain Bayley's Heir: A Tale of the Gold Fields of California | 1889 | 15 August 1888 | |
| The Cat of Bubastes A Tale of Ancient Egypt | 1889 | 3 September 1888 | |
| The Curse of Carne's Hold: A Tale of Adventure, Volumes I and II | 1889 | ||
| The Lion of St. Mark: A Story of Venice in the Fourteenth Century | 1889 | 29 February 1888 | |
| The Plague Ship | (1889) | ||
| Tales of Daring and Danger, Five Short Stories | 1890 | 20 July 1889 | |
| By Pike and Dyke: A Tale of the Rise of the Dutch Republic | 1890 | 7 August 1889 | |
| One of the 28th: A Tale of Waterloo | 1890 | 8 August 1889 | |
| With Lee in Virginia, A Story of the American Civil War | 1890 | 8 August 1889 | |
| The Boy Knight: A Tale of the Crusades (the American title for Winning His Spurs) | 1891 | ||
| By England's Aid: The Freeing of the Netherlands, 1585–1604 | 1891 | 14 June 1890 | |
| By Right of Conquest: With Cortez in Mexico | 1891 | 3 October 1890 | |
| Chapter of Adventures: Through the Bombardment of Alexandria aka The Young Midshipman (USA) | 1891 | 14 June 1890 | |
| A Hidden Foe, Volumes I and II | 1891 | ||
| Maori and Settler: A Tale of the New Zealand War | 1891 | 15 July 1890 | |
| Those Other Animals | (1891) | ||
| The Dash For Khartoum: A Tale of the Nile Expedition | 1892 | 14 July 1891 | |
| Held Fast for England: A Tale of the Siege of Gibraltar (1779–83) | 1892 | 1 August 1891 | |
| The Ranche in the Valley | (1892) | ||
| Redskin and Cowboy: A Tale of the Western Plains | 1892 | 14 July 1891 | |
| Beric the Briton: A Story of the Roman Invasion | 1893 | 22 June 1892 | |
| Condemned as a Nihilist: A Story of Escape from Siberia | 1893 | 21 June 1892 | |
| In Greek Waters: A Story of the Grecian War of Independence (1821–1827) | 1893 | 29 June 1892 | |
| Rujub, the Juggler, Volumes I, II and III | 1893 | ||
| Dorothy's Double: The Story of a Great Deception, Volumes I, II and III | 1894 | ||
| A Jacobite Exile: Being the Adventures of a Young Englishman in the Service of Charles XII of Sweden | 1894 | 13 June 1893 | |
| Saint Bartholomew's Eve: A Tale of the Huguenot Wars | 1894 | 13 June 1893 | |
| Through the Sikh War: A Tale of the Conquest of the Punjab | 1894 | 13 June 1893 | |
| In the Heart of the Rockies: A Story of Adventure in Colorado | 1895 | 19 July 1894 | |
| When London Burned: A Story of Restoration Times and the Great Fire | 1895 | 4 August 1894 | |
| Woman of the Commune: A Tale of Two Sieges of Paris (aka Cuthbert Hartington, A Girl of the Commune,Two Sieges and Two Sieges of Paris | 1895 | ||
| Wulf The Saxon: A Story of the Norman Conquest | 1895 | 8 May 1894 | |
| A Knight of the White Cross: A Tale of the Siege of Rhodes | 1896 | 13 June 1895 | |
| Through Russian Snows: A Story of Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow | 1896 | 14 August 1895 | |
| The Tiger of Mysore: A Story of the War with Tippoo Saib | 1896 | 12 September 1895 | |
| At Agincourt: A Tale of the White Hoods of Paris | 1897 | 27 June 1896 | |
| On the Irrawaddy: A Story of the First Burmese War | 1897 | 13 August 1896 | |
| The Queen's Cup, A Novel, Volumes I, II and III | 1897 | ||
| With Cochrane the Dauntless: A Tale of the Exploits of Lord Cochrane | 1897 | 9 June 1896 | |
| Colonel Thorndyke's Secret (aka The Brahmin's Treasure (USA)) | 1898 | ||
| A March on London: Being a Story of Wat Tyler's Insurrection | 1898 | 15 June 1897 | |
| With Frederick the Great: A Tale of the Seven Years War | 1898 | 26 August 1897 | |
| With Moore at Corunna: A Tale of the Peninsular War | 1898 | 22 May 1897 | |
| Among Malay Pirates; A Tale of Adventure and Peril | (1899) | ||
| On the Spanish Main: A Tale of Cuba and the Buccaneers | (1899) | ||
| At Aboukir and Acre: A Story of Napoleon's Invasion of Egypt | 1899 | 28 July 1898 | |
| Both Sides the Border: A Tale of Hotspur and Glendower | 1899 | 28 June 1898 | |
| The Golden Cañon and The Stone Chest, or The Secret of Cedar Island, (The Stone Chest is a filler title, not by Henty) (2-in-1 book) | 1899 | ||
| The Lost Heir | 1899 | ||
| Under Wellington's Command: A Tale of the Peninsular War | 1899 | 2 June 1898 | |
| In the Hands of the Cave Dwellers | 1900 | 18 July 1902 | |
| No Surrender | A Tale of the Rising in La Vendée | 1900 | 24 August 1899 |
| A Roving Commission, or, Through the Black Insurrection at Hayti | 1900 | 11 July 1899 | |
| Won by the Sword: A Story of the Thirty Years War | 1900 | 1 June 1899 | |
| In the Irish Brigade: A Tale of War in Flanders and Spain | 1901 | 23 May 1900 | |
| John Hawke's Fortune: A Story of Monmouth's Rebellion | 1901 | ||
| Out With Garibaldi: A Story of the Liberation of Italy | 1901 | 15 August 1900 | |
| Queen Victoria: Scenes from her Life and Reign | 1901 | ||
| With Buller in Natal: A Born Leader | 1901 | 13 July 1900 | |
| At the Point of the Bayonet: A Tale of the Mahratta War | 1902 | 6 April 1901 | |
| A Soldier's Daughter | 1902 | ||
| To Herat and Cabul, A Story of the First Afghan War | 1902 | 28 June 1901 | |
| With Roberts to Pretoria: A Tale of the South African War | 1902 | 15 August 1901 | |
| The Treasure of the Incas: A Tale of Adventure in Peru | 1903 | 23 June 1902 | |
| With Kitchener in the Soudan, A Story of Atbara and Omdurman | 1903 | 17 May 1902 | |
| With the British Legion: A Story of the Carlist Wars | 1903 | 2 August 1902 | |
| Through Three Campaigns: A Story of Chitral, Tirah, and Ashantee | 1904 | 6 May 1903 | |
| With the Allies to Pekin: A Story of the Relief of the Legations | 1904 | 29 May 1903 | |
| Gallant Deeds, Five Short Stories | 1905 | ||
| By Conduct and Courage: A Story of Nelson's Days | 1905 | 15 July 1904 | |
| In the Hands of the Malays | 1905 | ||
| Among the Bushrangers from A Final Reckoning | 1906 | ||
| Indian Raid, An from Redskin and Cowboy | 1906 | ||
| Cast Ashore from With Clive in India | 1906 | ||
| Charlie Marryat from With Clive in India | 1906 | ||
| Cornet Walter from Orange and Green | 1906 | ||
| A Highland Chief from In Freedom's Cause | 1906 | ||
| The Two Prisoners from A Soldier's Daughter | 1906 | ||
| The Young Captain from With Clive in India | 1906 | ||
There is one known instance of a book title by Henty having been filmed, along with eleven audio theater productions by Heirloom Audio[29] in their series "The Extraordinary Adventures of G. A. Henty": Under Drake's Flag,[30] With Lee in Virginia,[31] In the Reign of Terror, The Cat of Bubastes, Beric the Briton, The Dragon and the Raven, Wulf the Saxon, Captain Bayley's Heir In Freedom's Cause, St. Bartholomew's Eve, and For the Temple.[32] Heirloom Audio's productions have featured several well-known actors, including Golden Globe winner Joanne Froggatt of Downton Abbey and Billy Boyd of The Lord of the Rings.[33]
Heirloom Audio was founded by Illinois businessman Bill Heid, who said of Henty, "He took you to places that had great historical significance. It's historical fiction, yet there's very little fiction." Heid said of the characters portrayed in Henty's books and Heirloom Audio's productions, "Who's a real hero? Jay Cutler or Aaron Rodgers, or Francis Drake? Who had the guts, the belief in God's sovereignty? I want to tell the stories that young people think, 'I could imagine doing something like that.' I want them to dream big. There was a time in our country we really had big dreams, thought we could do big things. For some reason, we don't talk like that, take risks like that."[33]
Heid added that too often in schools, "history becomes kind of a data dump, dead guys and dates." But with Henty, "History is anything but boring. It's amazing. William Wallace was a real person, had real struggles of his own. He had hopes and dreams and ambitions, struggles like anyone else, doubts and flaws."[33]
Film
A Final Reckoning (1929), American, B&W: Serial/24 reels
Directed by Ray Taylor.
Cast: Frank Clark [Jim Whitney], Newton House, Louise Lorraine, Jay Wilsey, Edmund Cobb.
Universal Pictures Corporation production; distributed by Universal Pictures Corporation.
Scenario by Basil Dickey and George Morgan, from a novel by George Alfred Henty.
Cinematography by Frank Redman.
Twelve episodes (two reels each): [1] "A Treacherous Friend," released 15 April 1929. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.37:1 format. / [?] Website-IMDb lists the release date of the first episode as 15 April 1928.
Audio Theatre Productions