G.A. Henty

George Alfred Henty (AKA G.A. Henty) was a demiurgic and innovative writer, his novels and short stories stimulating. He was born at Trumpington, UK (A village on the outskirts of Cambridge) in 1832. He attended the Westminster School, and then College in Cambridge, where he studied classics. When the Crimean War began in 1854, Henty and his brother joined the British Army, though his brother died of cholera while they were in service.

Henty would send letters of his adventures in the war home, where a newspaper would publish them, though he wasn’t set upon becoming an author at the time. Instead he continued his service in the war, until he decided to resign his commission, afterwhich he got a job assisting his father in running mines. His heart wasn’t in this, and he decided to become a bona-fide writer.

He was married to a woman named Elizabeth Finucane, with whom he had four children. (Unfortunately, Elizabeth and their two daughters died of tuberculosis)

In 1868, he wrote his first childrens book, titled “Out On The Pampas.” He named the main characters after his children, Charley, Hubert, Maud, and Ethel. I suppose he based the wife in the story off of his own, who had died a few years previous, which must’ve been a sort of remembrance of her, and quite painful for him.

G.A. Henty wrote some 120 other books, the majority of which were historical fiction, although some were non-fiction as well. Some of these works are: “Held Fast For England”, “In Greek Waters”, “Through The Fray”, “The Lion Of The North”, and “Wulf The Saxon.”

While he was, without a doubt, a great author, he was quite racist and prejudicial. “By Sheer Pluck: A Tale of the Ashanti War” and “A Roving Commission, or, Through the Black Insurrection at Hayti” are examples of novels which display this. Here is a quote from “By Sheer Luck: A Tale of the Ashanti War” :

“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”

He believed any person who was not a British white was inferior, more like an annoying thing that must be dealt with before they become more ‘savage’ and ‘destructive’.

According to multiple journalists, his racism is often ignored by Christians, made to look more like patriotism or something of that sort. He is considered a great role-model for male children, (Which I find slightly irritating, as females are just as capable as males and that sort of medieval thinking makes me want to break things :D) because of his courage and pluck in the war, his manliness, and how he strived to become more studious afterwards.

G.A. Henty is indubitably a great author, -even with his superior attitude- with intriguing, adventurous stories that still captivate young minds today.