Henty's Hidden Collaborator

Abstract

George Alfred Henty (1832-1902) was the preeminent boys’ writer of the late-Victorian period, producing three to four books a year from the early 1880s until his death. However, by his own admission, Henty never wrote a word, but dictated his stories to an amanuensis. For two decades that amanuensis was John Pettit Griffith (1860-1931). In this article I suggest that Griffith was more than a simple transcriptionist but actually a partial collaborator with Henty, although neither man may have admitted it. I begin by considering the descriptions of Henty’s writing method, which are detailed in several articles and in his biography, written by his friend and fellow writer George Manville Fenn (1831-1909). Next, I consider Griffith himself and what can be surmised of his relationship with Henty. Finally, I look at the evident division in Henty’s books between passages of history and the story itself. The clear divide in the text is produced by Henty’s method, and an anecdote by Edmund Downey (1856-1937) has led to speculation that Griffith may have written the historical passages. Whether he did or not, the nature of Henty’s method suggests Griffith deserves more credit for his role in producing Henty’s famous boys’ books than he has previously been given.