G. A. Henty

George Alfred Henty
Born	(1832-12-08)December 8, 1832 Trumpington, Cambridge, England
Died	November 16, 1902(1902-11-16) (aged 69) Weymouth, Dorset, England

George Alfred Henty (8 December, 1832 – 16 November, 1902), referred to as G. A. Henty, was a prolific English novelist, special correspondent and Imperialist. He is best known for his historical adventure stories that were popular in the late 19th century. His works include Out on the Pampas (1871), The Young Buglers (1880), With Clive in India (1884) and Wulf the Saxon (1895).

Biography

G.A. Henty was born in Trumpington, near Cambridge. 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 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 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 writers 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. He also witnessed the opening of the Suez Canal and travelled to Palestine, Russia and India.

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 and edited the Union Jack, a weekly boy's magazine.

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. These virtues have made Henty's novels popular today among many Christians and homeschoolers.

On 16 November, 1902, Henty died aboard his yacht in Weymouth Harbour, Dorset shortly before he finished his last novel, By Conduct and Courage, which was completed by his son Captain C.G. Henty.

Henty is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.

Funerary monument, Brompton Cemetery, London

Bibliography

Henty wrote 122 works of historical fiction and all first editions had the date printed at the foot of the title page. (Reference G.A.Henty 1832–1902 A Bibliographical Study by Peter Newbolt.) 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. Many sellers of Henty and websites listing Henty book titles state that 'Forest and Frontier' or 'Forests and Frontiers' is by GA Henty, when it is definitely not by Henty which has been confirmed by The Henty Society.

Reprints of all Henty's works are available from many modern day American publishers.

Title	Publication date
All But Lost Vol. Volumes I, II and III	1869
Among the Bushrangers, from A Final Reckoning	1906
An Indian Raid, from Redskin and Cowboy	1906
At Aboukir and Acre, A Story of Napoleon's Invasion of Egypt	1899
At Agincourt, A Tale of the White Hoods of Paris	1897
At the Point of the Bayonet, A Tale of the Mahratta War	1902
Beric the Briton, A Story of the Roman Invasion	1893
Bonnie Prince Charlie, A Tale of Fontenoy and Culloden	1888
Both Sides the Border, A Tale of Hotspur and Glendower	1899
The Bravest of the Brave, or, With Peterborough in Spain	1887
By Conduct and Courage, A Story of Nelson's Days	1905
By England's Aid, The Freeing of the Netherlands, 1585 - 1604	1891
By Pike and Dyke, A Tale of the Rise of the Dutch Republic	1890
By Right of Conquest, With Cortez in Mexico	1891
By Sheer Pluck, A Tale of the Ashanti War	1884
Captain Bayley's Heir, A Tale of the Gold Fields of California	1889
Cast Ashore, from With Clive in India	1906
The Cat of Bubastes, A Tale of Ancient Egypt	1889
Chapter of Adventures, Through the Bombardment of Alexandria	1891
Charlie Marryat, from With Clive in India	1906
Colonel Thorndyke's Secret (American title: The Brahmin's Treasure.)	1898
Condemned as a Nihilist, A Story of Escape from Siberia	1893
The Cornet of Horse, A Tale of Marlborough's Wars	1881
Cornet Walter, from Orange and Green	1906
The Curse of Carne's Hold, A Tale of Adventure	1889
The Dash For Khartoum, A Tale of the Nile Expedition	1892
Dorothy's Double, The Story of a Great Deception	1894
The Dragon and the Raven, The Days of King Alfred	1886
Facing Death, The Hero of the Vaughan Pit – A Tale of the Coal Mines	1882
A Final Reckoning, A Tale of Bush Life in Australia	1887
For Name and Fame, To Cabul with Roberts	1886
For the Temple, A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem	1888
Friends Though Divided, A Tale of the Civil War	1883
Gabriel Allen M.P.	1888
Held Fast for England, A Tale of the Siege of Gibraltar (1779 - 83)	1892
A Hidden Foe	1891
A Highland Chief, from In Freedom's Cause	1906
In Freedom's Cause, A Story of Wallace and Bruce	1885
In Greek Waters, A Story of the Grecian War of Independence (1821–1827)	1893
In the Hands of the Cave Dwellers	1900
In the Hands of the Malays	1905
In the Heart of the Rockies, A Story of Adventure in Colorado	1895
In the Irish Brigade, A Tale of War in Flanders and Spain	1901
In the Reign of Terror, The Adventures of a Westminster Boy	1888
In Times of Peril, A Tale of India	1881
Jack Archer, A Tale of the Crimea	1883
A Jacobite Exile, Being the Adventures of a Young Englishman in the Service of Charles XII. of Sweden	1894
John Hawke's Fortune, A Story of Monmouth's Rebellion	1901
A Knight of the White Cross, A Tale of the Siege of Rhodes	1896
The Lion of St. Mark, A Story of Venice in the Fourteenth Century	1889
The Lion of the North, A Tale of Gustavus Adolphus and the Wars of Religion	1886
The Lost Heir	1899
Maori and Settler, A Tale of the New Zealand War	1891
A March on London, Being a Story of Wat Tyler's Insurrection	1898
The March to Coomassie	1874
The March to Magdala	1868
No Surrender! A Tale of the Rising in La Vendée	1900
On the Irrawaddy, A Story of the First Burmese War	1897
One of the 28th, A Tale of Waterloo	1890
Orange and Green, A Tale of the Boyne and Limerick	1888
Out on the Pampas, The Young Settlers	1871
Out With Garibaldi, A Story of the Liberation of Italy	1901
The Plague Ship	undated
Queen Victoria, Scenes from her Life and Reign	1901
The Queen's Cup, A Novel	1897
The Ranche in the Valley	1892
Redskin and Cowboy, A Tale of the Western Plains	1892
A Roving Commission, or, Through the Black Insurrection at Hayti	1900
Rujub, the Juggler	1893
A Search for a Secret	1867
The Sovereign Reader, Scenes from the Life and Reign of Queen Victoria	1887
Saint Bartholomew's Eve, A Tale of the Huguenot Wars	1894
St. George For England, A Tale of Cressy and Poitiers	1885
Sturdy and Strong, How George Andrews Made His Way	1888
Those Other Animals	1891
Through Russian Snows, A Story of Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow	1896
Through the Fray, A Tale of the Luddite Riots	1886
Through the Sikh War, A Tale of the Conquest of the Punjab	1894
Through Three Campaigns, A Story of Chitral, Tirah, and Ashantee	1904
The Tiger of Mysore, A Story of the War with Tippoo Saib	1896
The Treasure of the Incas, A Tale of Adventure in Peru	1903
True to the Old Flag, A Tale of the American War of Independence	1885
The Two Prisoners, from A Soldier's Daughter	1906
The Young Carthaginian, A Story of the Time of Hannibal	1887
To Herat and Cabul, A Story of the First Afghan War	1902
Under Drake's Flag, A Tale of the Spanish Main	1883
Under Wellington's Command, A Tale of the Peninsular War	1899
When London Burned, A Story of Restoration Times and the Great Fire	1895
Winning His Spurs, A Tale of the Crusades:aka Boy Knight	1882
With Buller in Natal, A Born Leader	1901
With Clive in India, The Beginnings of an Empire	1884
With Cochrane the Dauntless, A Tale of the Exploits of Lord Cochrane	1897
With Frederick The Great, A Tale of the Seven Years War	1898
With Kitchener in the Soudan, A Story of Atbara and Omdurman	1903
With Lee in Virginia, A Story of the American Civil War	1890
With Moore at Corunna	1898
With Roberts to Pretoria, A Tale of the South African War	1902
With the Allies to Pekin, A Story of the Relief of the Legations	1904
With the British Legion, A Story of the Carlist Wars	1903
With Wolfe in Canada, The Winning of a Continent	1887
Woman of the Commune, A Tale of Two Sieges of Paris :aka Cuthbert Hartington:aka A Girl of the Commune:aka Two Sieges:aka Two Sieges of Paris	1895
Won by the Sword, A Story of the Thirty Years War	1900
Wulf The Saxon, A Story of the Norman Conquest	1895
The Young Buglers, A Tale of the Peninsular War	1880
The Young Captain, from With Clive in India	1906
The Young Colonists, A Tale of the Zulu and Boer Wars	1885
The Young Franc-Tireurs, and Their Adventure in the Franco-Prussian War	1872
The Young Midshipman, (American title of 'A Chapter of Adventures')	undated

References

• "G.A. Henty 1832–1902: A Bibliographical Study ...." by Peter Newbolt ISBN 978-1859282083
• Henty Society at www.hentysociety.org

External links

• Works by G. A. Henty at Project Gutenberg
• Works by G. A. Henty at Internet Archive
• Template:Worldcat id
• Works by and about G. A. Henty at Michigan Digitization Project
• Works about G. A. Henty at BallantyneTheBrave.com
• Alternative article containing additional information