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From:
Subject: [S-I] James McHenry (1785-1845), Novelist
Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2008 16:42:07 EDT


Frank Ferguson's new book, An Ulster-Scots Anthology, is full of wonderful
surprises. I learned there about James McHenry (1785-1845) who published a
number of novels about Ulster and Scotch-Irish pioneers in Pennsylvania. He
was born in Larne, practiced medicine and published poetry and prose in
Belfast before emigrating to Baltimore in 1816. In his first American novel, The
Wilderness, published in 1823, many of the characters speak in the
Ulster-Scots he spoke at home in Co. Antrim!

This book and several others are on microfilm in my university library.
Since McHenry's copyright expired long ago, it would be interesting to make
these books available to a wider public. Perhaps the text could be digitized and
available on a website?

I found a brief account of McHenry and his books in Charles Fanning, The
Irish Voice in America (Lexington Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1999),
43-56.

All the best,
Richard



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