George Alfred Henty (8 December 1832 – 16 November 1902) was an English novelist and war correspondent. He is most well-known for his works of

adventure fiction Adventure fiction is a type of fiction that usually presents danger, or gives the reader a sense of excitement. Some adventure fiction also satisfies the literary definition of romance fiction. History In the Introduction to the ''Encycloped ...

and

historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other t ...

, including ''The Dragon & The Raven'' (1886), ''For The Temple'' (1888), ''Under Drake's Flag'' (1883) and ''In Freedom's Cause'' (1885).

Biography

G. A. Henty was born in Trumpington, near

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

but spent some of his childhood in Canterbury. 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 (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

, London, as a half-boarder when he was fourteen, and later

Gonville and Caius College Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...

, Cambridge, where he was a keen sportsman. He left the university early without completing his degree to volunteer for the Army Hospital Conveyance Corps when the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

began. He was sent to the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a p ...

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 Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

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 Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, pa ...

. He went on to cover the 1868 British punitive expedition to Abyssinia, the Franco-Prussian War, the

Ashanti War The Anglo-Ashanti wars were a series of five conflicts that took place between 1824 and 1900 between the Ashanti Empire—in the Akan interior of the Gold Coast—and the British Empire and its African allies. Though the Ashanti emerged victori ...

, the Carlist Rebellion in Spain and the Turco-Serbian War.Kathryne S. McDorman,"Henty, George Alfred" in ''Historical Dictionary of the British empire'' edited by James S. Olson and Robert Shadle. Greenwood Press, 1996 (pp. 152–54, Volume 1). He also witnessed the opening of the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popula ...

and travelled to Palestine, Russia and India. Henty was a strong supporter of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

all his life; according to literary critic Kathryn Castle: "Henty ... exemplified the ethos of the ritish Empire and glorified in its successes". Henty's ideas about politics were influenced by writers such as

Sir Charles Dilke Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, 2nd Baronet, PC (4 September 1843 – 26 January 1911) was an English Liberal and Radical politician. A republican in the early 1870s, he later became a leader in the radical challenge to Whig control of the Libe ...

and

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, ...

. 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, 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 ''The Boy's Own Paper'' was a British story paper aimed at young and teenage boys, published from 1879 to 1967. Publishing history The idea for the publication was first raised in 1878 by the Religious Tract Society, as a means to encourage you ...

'' and edited the ''

Union Jack The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

'', a weekly boy's magazine. Henty was "the most popular Boy's author of his day." 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,It should be remembered that at the time, a popular adult novel might sell as many as 5,000 copies. 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. His children's novels typically revolved around a boy or young man living in troubled times. These ranged from the

Punic War The Punic Wars were a series of wars between 264 and 146BC fought between Rome and Carthage. Three conflicts between these states took place on both land and sea across the western Mediterranean region and involved a total of forty-three yea ...

to more recent conflicts such as the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...

or the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

. Henty's heroes – which occasionally included young ladies – are uniformly intelligent, courageous, honest and resourceful with plenty of 'pluck' yet are also modest.

Humphrey Carpenter Humphrey William Bouverie Carpenter (29 April 1946 – 4 January 2005) was an English biographer, writer, and radio broadcaster. He is known especially for his biographies of J. R. R. Tolkien and other members of the literary society the Inkl ...

and Mari Prichard,''The Oxford Companion to children's literature'' Oxford University Press, 1998. (pp. 244-47). These themes have made Henty's novels popular today among many conservative Christians and

homeschoolers Homeschooling or home schooling, also known as home education or elective home education (EHE), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted by a parent, tutor, or an onl ...

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. 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. Henty is buried in

Brompton Cemetery Brompton Cemetery (originally the West of London and Westminster Cemetery) is a London cemetery, managed by The Royal Parks, in West Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. Establ ...

, London.

Influence

G. A. Henty's commercial popularity encouraged other writers to try writing juvenile adventure stories in his style; " Herbert Strang",

Henry Everett McNeil Henry Everett McNeil (25 September 1862 – 14 December 1929) was a leading children's author of the 1910s and 1920s, and was an original and core member of the Kalem Club circle around the writer H.P. Lovecraft. McNeil played a crucial role ...

, Percy F. Westerman and Captain Frederick Sadleir Brereton all wrote novels in "the Henty tradition", often incorporating then-contemporary themes such as

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes airplane, fixed-wing and helicopter, rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as aerostat, lighter- ...

and

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

combat. 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.

Bibliography

Henty wrote 122 works of historical fiction and all first editions had the date printed at the foot of the title page. 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 Harper may refer to: Names * Harper (name), a surname and given name Places ;in Canada *Harper Islands, Nunavut *Harper, Prince Edward Island ;In the United States *Harper, former name of Costa Mesa, California in Orange County * Harper, Illi ...

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''.

Misattribution

A book published in 1884 in the "Fireside Henty Series" called ''Forest and Frontier'' was discovered to be by Thomas M. Newson.

UK and US availability

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. 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, 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.

Controversial views

Henty's has been contentious; some writers have accused Henty's novels of being aggressively and obstinately

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

and reactionary in such books as ''True to the Old Flag'' (1885) which features a

Loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British C ...

protagonist fighting in the

American War of Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, 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 The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

. Henty's novel '' With Lee in Virginia'' has a protagonist who fights on the side of the Confederacy against the Union. Henty's popularity amongst

is not without controversy. Quoting from the chapter of ''By Sheer Pluck'' called "The Negro Character" ("like children"), American television host and political commentator

Rachel Maddow Rachel Anne Maddow (, ; born April 1, 1973) is an American television news program host and liberal political commentator. Maddow hosts '' The Rachel Maddow Show'', a weekly television show on MSNBC, and serves as the cable network's special e ...

called Henty's writings "spectacularly racist".Quotes a
''By Sheer Pluck'' (1884)
, p. 118, via ''forgotten books.com'' (2013, London). Retrieved 2015-03-11. Carpenter and Pritchard note that while "Henty's work is indeed full of racial (and class)

stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for exampl ...

s", he sometimes created sympathetic

ethnic minority The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...

characters, such as the Indian servant who marries a white woman in ''With Clive in India'', and point out Henty admired the

Turkish Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. 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 "

Boer Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled this are ...

s and

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

were considered equally ignoble". In ''By Sheer Pluck: A Tale of the Ashanti War'', Mr. Goodenough, an

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as ara ...

remarks to the hero: “They egroesare 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. 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. 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." In 1888, on the bookjacket for ''Captain Bayley's Heir'', ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' wrote that Henty's character in ''With Lee in Virginia,'' "bravely proving his sympathy with the slaves of brutal masters" and escapes through "the devotion of a black servant and of a

runaway slave In the United States, fugitive slaves or runaway slaves were terms used in the 18th and 19th century to describe people who fled slavery. The term also refers to the federal Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. Such people are also called fre ...

whom he had assisted". The reviewer recommended the book.

List of titles

Adaptation

There is one known instance of a book title by Henty having been filmed, along with nine audio theater productions by Heirloom Audio in their series "The Extraordinary Adventures of G. A. Henty": ''Under Drake's Flag'', ''With Lee in Virginia'', ''In the Reign of Terror'', ''The Cat of Bubastes'', ''Beric the Briton'', ''The Dragon and the Raven'', ''Wulf the Saxon, Captain Bayley's Heir'' and ''In Freedom's Cause''. Heirloom Audio's productions have featured several well-known actors, including Golden Globe winner Joanne Froggatt of ''

Downton Abbey ''Downton Abbey'' is a British historical drama television series set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes. The series first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV on 26 September 2010 and in the United States o ...

'' and Billy Boyd of ''The Lord of the Rings''. 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." 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 Sir William Wallace ( gd, Uilleam Uallas, ; Norman French: ; 23 August 1305) was a Scottish knight who became one of the main leaders during the First War of Scottish Independence. Along with Andrew Moray, Wallace defeated an English army ...

was a real person, had real struggles of his own. He had hopes and dreams and ambitions, struggles like anyone else, doubts and flaws." Film ''

A Final Reckoning ''A Final Reckoning'' is a 1928 American silent Western film serial directed by Ray Taylor, set in colonial Australia. The film is considered to be lost. It is based on an 1887 novel by G. A. Henty. Cast * Newton House as Ruben Whitney * L ...

'' (1929), American, B&W: Serial/24 reels Directed by Ray Taylor.
Cast: Frank Clark im Whitney Newton House,

Louise Lorraine Louise Lorraine (born Louise Escovar; October 1, 1904 – February 2, 1981) was an American actress. Life and career Louise Lorraine was born Louise Escovar in San Francisco, California. One day, a photography salesman knocked on the door of t ...

Jay Wilsey Jay Wilsey (February 6, 1896 – October 25, 1961) was an American film actor (born Wilbert Jay Wilsey). He appeared in nearly 100 films between 1924 and 1944. He starred in a series of very low-budget westerns in the 1920s and 1930s, billed ...

Edmund Cobb Edmund Fessenden Cobb (June 23, 1892 – August 15, 1974) was an American actor who appeared in more than 620 films between 1912 and 1966. Biography Cobb was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the son of William Henry Cobb and Eddie (Edmundi ...

.
Universal Pictures Corporation production; distributed by Universal Pictures Corporation.
Scenario by

Basil Dickey Basil Dickey (November 23, 1880 – June 17, 1958) was an American screenwriter. He wrote for more than 140 films between 1916 and 1958. He was born in Illinois and died in Long Beach, California. His brother was playwright and screenwrite ...

and George Morgan, from a novel by George Alfred Henty.
Cinematography by Frank Redman. Twelve episodes (two reels each): "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 *''Under Drake's Flag'' (2013), Heirloom Audio Productions * ''In Freedom's Cause'' (2014), Heirloom Audio Productions *''With Lee in Virginia'', Heirloom Audio Productions *''In the Reign of Terror'', Heirloom Audio Productions *''The Cat of Bubastes'', Heirloom Audio Productions *''Beric the Briton'', Heirloom Audio Productions *''The Dragon and the Raven'', Heirloom Audio Productions *''Captain Bayley's Heir,'' Heirloom Audio Productions *''Wulf the Saxon'', Heirloom Audio Productions