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British novelist (1832 – 1902)

George Alfred Henty (8 December 1832 – 16 November 1902) was an English novelist and war correspondent. 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. 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. 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". Henty's ideas about politics were influenced by writers such as Sir Charles Dilke and Thomas Carlyle. 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, 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. 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 themes have made Henty's novels popular today among many conservative Christians and homeschoolers.

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. 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.

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

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 (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.

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, 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. Henty's popularity amongst homeschoolers 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 called Henty's writings "spectacularly racist". 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. 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 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.

TitlesTitle Page DatesPublication DatesA Search for a Secret 1867The March to Magdala 1868All But Lost, Volumes I, II and III 1869Out on the Pampas: The Young Settlers 1870 The Young Franc Tireurs and Their Adventure in the Franco Prussian War 1872The March to Coomassie 1874The Young Buglers, A Tale of the Peninsular War 1880The Cornet of Horse: A Tale of Marlborough's Wars 1881In Times of Peril: A Tale of India 1881Facing Death, The Hero of the Vaughan Pit – A Tale of the Coal Mines 188231 May 1882Winning His Spurs: A Tale of the Crusades (aka Boy Knight) 1882Friends Though Divided: A Tale of the Civil War 1883Jack Archer: A Tale of the Crimea 1883Under Drake's Flag: A Tale of the Spanish Main 188331 August 1882By Sheer Pluck: A Tale of the Ashanti War 188428 September 1883With Clive in India: The Beginnings of an Empire 188424 September 1883In Freedom's Cause: A Story of Wallace and Bruce 188516 July 1884St. George For England: A Tale of Cressy and Poitiers 188527 August 1884True to the Old Flag: A Tale of the American War of Independence 18852 August 1884The Young Colonists: A Tale of the Zulu and Boer Wars 1885The Dragon and the Raven, or The Days of King Alfred 18862 May 1885For Name and Fame: To Cabul with Roberts 18862 May 1885The Lion of the North: A Tale of Gustavus Adolphus and the Wars of Religion 188619 August 1885Through the Fray: A Tale of the Luddite Riots 18865 September 1885Yarns on the Beach: A Bundle of Tales 188615 September 1885The Bravest of the Brave, or, With Peterborough in Spain 18871 June 1886A Final Reckoning: A Tale of Bush Life in Australia 18878 June 1886The Sovereign Reader: Scenes from the Life and Reign of Queen Victoria 188726 August 1887The Young Carthaginian, A Story of the Time of Hannibal 18878 June 1886With Wolfe in Canada: The Winning of a Continent 188718 May 1886Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Tale of Fontenoy and Culloden 18886 June 1887For the Temple: A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem 188819 August 1887Gabriel Allen M. P. 1888In the Reign of Terror: The Adventures of a Westminster Boy 18888 July 1887Orange and Green: A Tale of the Boyne and Limerick 18882 July 1887Sturdy and Strong: How George Andrews Made His Way 188827 July 1887Captain Bayley's Heir: A Tale of the Gold Fields of California 188915 August 1888The Cat of Bubastes: A Tale of Ancient Egypt 18893 September 1888The Curse of Carne's Hold: A Tale of Adventure, Volumes I and II 1889The Lion of St. Mark: A Story of Venice in the Fourteenth Century 188929 February 1888The Plague Ship (1889)Tales of Daring and Danger, Five Short Stories 189020 July 1889By Pike and Dyke: A Tale of the Rise of the Dutch Republic 18907 August 1889One of the 28th: A Tale of Waterloo 18908 August 1889With Lee in Virginia, A Story of the American Civil War 18908 August 1889The Boy Knight: A Tale of the Crusades (the American title for Winning His Spurs) 1891By England's Aid: The Freeing of the Netherlands, 1585–1604 189114 June 1890By Right of Conquest: With Cortez in Mexico 18913 October 1890Chapter of Adventures: Through the Bombardment of Alexandria aka The Young Midshipman (USA) 189114 June 1890A Hidden Foe, Volumes I and II 1891Maori and Settler: A Tale of the New Zealand War 189115 July 1890Those Other Animals (1891)The Dash For Khartoum: A Tale of the Nile Expedition 189214 July 1891Held Fast for England: A Tale of the Siege of Gibraltar (1779–83) 18921 August 1891The Ranche in the Valley (1892)Redskin and Cowboy: A Tale of the Western Plains 189214 July 1891Beric the Briton: A Story of the Roman Invasion 189322 June 1892Condemned as a Nihilist: A Story of Escape from Siberia 189321 June 1892In Greek Waters: A Story of the Grecian War of Independence (1821–1827) 189329 June 1892Rujub, the Juggler, Volumes I, II and III 1893Dorothy's Double: The Story of a Great Deception, Volumes I, II and III 1894A Jacobite Exile: Being the Adventures of a Young Englishman in the Service of Charles XII of Sweden 189413 June 1893Saint Bartholomew's Eve: A Tale of the Huguenot Wars 189413 June 1893Through the Sikh War: A Tale of the Conquest of the Punjab 189413 June 1893In the Heart of the Rockies: A Story of Adventure in Colorado 189519 July 1894When London Burned: A Story of Restoration Times and the Great Fire 18954 August 1894Woman 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 1895Wulf The Saxon: A Story of the Norman Conquest 18958 May 1894A Knight of the White Cross: A Tale of the Siege of Rhodes 189613 June 1895Through Russian Snows: A Story of Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow 189614 August 1895The Tiger of Mysore: A Story of the War with Tippoo Saib 189612 September 1895At Agincourt: A Tale of the White Hoods of Paris 189727 June 1896On the Irrawaddy: A Story of the First Burmese War 189713 August 1896The Queen's Cup, A Novel, Volumes I, II and III 1897With Cochrane the Dauntless: A Tale of the Exploits of Lord Cochrane 18979 June 1896Colonel Thorndyke's Secret (aka The Brahmin's Treasure (USA)) 1898A March on London: Being a Story of Wat Tyler's Insurrection 189815 June 1897With Frederick the Great: A Tale of the Seven Years War 189826 August 1897With Moore at Corunna: A Tale of the Peninsular War 189822 May 1897Among 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 Egypt189928 July 1898Both Sides the Border: A Tale of Hotspur and Glendower 189928 June 1898The 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) 1899The Lost Heir 1899Under Wellington's Command: A Tale of the Peninsular War 18992 June 1898In the Hands of the Cave Dwellers 190018 July 1902No Surrender! A Tale of the Rising in La Vendée 190024 August 1899A Roving Commission, or, Through the Black Insurrection at Hayti 190011 July 1899Won by the Sword: A Story of the Thirty Years War 19001 June 1899In the Irish Brigade: A Tale of War in Flanders and Spain 190123 May 1900John Hawke's Fortune: A Story of Monmouth's Rebellion 1901Out With Garibaldi: A Story of the Liberation of Italy 190115 August 1900Queen Victoria: Scenes from her Life and Reign 1901With Buller in Natal: A Born Leader 190113 July 1900At the Point of the Bayonet: A Tale of the Mahratta War 19026 April 1901A Soldier's Daughter 1902To Herat and Cabul, A Story of the First Afghan War 190228 June 1901With Roberts to Pretoria: A Tale of the South African War 190215 August 1901The Treasure of the Incas: A Tale of Adventure in Peru 190323 June 1902With Kitchener in the Soudan, A Story of Atbara and Omdurman 190317 May 1902With the British Legion: A Story of the Carlist Wars 19032 August 1902Through Three Campaigns: A Story of Chitral, Tirah, and Ashantee 19046 May 1903With the Allies to Pekin: A Story of the Relief of the Legations 190429 May 1903Gallant Deeds, Five Short Stories 1905By Conduct and Courage: A Story of Nelson's Days 190515 July 1904In the Hands of the Malays 1905Among the Bushrangers from A Final Reckoning1906Indian Raid, An from Redskin and Cowboy1906Cast Ashore from With Clive in India 1906Charlie Marryat from With Clive in India 1906Cornet Walter from Orange and Green 1906A Highland Chief from In Freedom's Cause 1906The Two Prisoners from A Soldier's Daughter 1906The Young Captain from With Clive in India 1906