Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1914-02-25
GRANT COUNTY WRITER
OF IRISH LITERATURE
The Late Anna G. Seaman, of
Town of Mount Hope
Produced a Most Excellent Historical
Novel of the Old Days of
the Irish Kings,


sort to produce anything meritorious,
from buckwheat cakes to literature of
the highest grade. All that is need
ed is bit of inspiration, with
purpose, and the desired thing is
done. But it is a certainty that at
least one book of rare merit and on
original, almost pioneering. lines has
been produced in Grant County.
It is almost 90 years ago that there
was printed and published in Mil
waukee a volume of historical, or
NEUROLOGICAL, or clever combination
of both, prose that possesses such real
merit as to attract very intellectual
and Intelligent reading. 1t was
written by the late Miss Anna G.
Seaman, a sister of John j. Seaman,
Esq, of Fennimore.
AS early as 1889 Miss Seaman.
then little more than a school girl,
first determined to write a sort of
historical story. or novel, covering
that most interesting period of the
history of Ireland. the 18th century.
She had been a close student of Irish
history. and of such folk tales as had
then been put into literary form and
had found expression in printed books.
From this intensely interesting period
Miss Scanlan selected one of the most
rugged charactsrs-and the times
abounded in rugged folk.
Dervorgilla, daughter of the high
king of Ireland. was married to Tier
man O'Rourk. of Brefuy. the most
daring and relentless warrior among
the petty kings that then infested the
island. For that people was not
content to have one king there were
at least a dozen in the emerald isle in
those days. Like the petty kings
and princes that today rule over the
several states of Germany, so did
those petty kings in Ireland rule over
small territories, each in turn sub
servient to the over.king, or head
king, whose seat of power was at the
ancient capital of Ireland, the famous
and tabled Tara.
No sooner had she determined to
write than the work was begun, and
although the young woman suffered
much from a physical lnirmity that
closed her career. too soon, she
persisted until the work was practical
ly completed. This was enacted on
the old Scanlan homestead, on Sec
tion %, town of Mt. Hope, When
the first draft of the story was about
finished, tbs dread disease, tuber-
culosis, closed the chapter and took
the gifted young author to another
world.
It seems peculiarly unfortunate that
Miss Scanlan might not live to re-
view and revise her literary work.
In her stead, her brother, Charles M
Scanlan, an attorney in Milwaukee,
did the revising. No doubt he was
best qualified of all survivors to do
this labor of love. Anyway, the
book was brought out and shows a
most careful finishing Miss Scanlan
died at the old Seaman homestead
June Is, 1894. and the following
winter saw her literary work in
printed book form.
There is about this matter one
feature that is worth serious con-
sideration. This volume from the
pen of Miss Seaman was printed and
published in the year 1894, and that
is one of the early dates established in
the revival of Irish literature. On
that year DR.. Douglas Hyde. the
Celtic revivalist, as he has been
called, brought out his first book of
IRISH folk tales. Soon after DR.. Hyde
began to write, other IrishmeD and
Irish women brought to literature
their tributes. And the result has
been a regular renaissance in Irish
literature.
Who shall say that Anna G.. Scan
Ian did not do as much as DIR.
Douglas Hyde. or William Butler
Yeats, or John NJ Synge, or Lady
Gregory, names all of first bril-
liancy in the galaxy of modern Irish
literature, to usher in the great re-
naissance For, certain it is, the
revival that has taken place in Irish
literature, especially in folk lore and
drama, has been a phenomenal one
First the movement began in folk
tales, and there have been produced
few books of genuine worth and origi-
nality along these lines that equal
Miss Scanlan's 'Dervorgilla, or the
Downfall of Ireland. "
It probably signifies nothing that
a dozen years after the appearance of