Article: "Memories of Fr. Ryan: An Old Friend..."

Editor's Note: This article contains some unusual and interesting recollections by Nellie Henry, who, as a schoolgirl, had entered a poetry contest judged by Fr. Ryan. Most striking, of couse, is her assertion that she wrote the poem Reunited that appeared in Ryan's book, and also that Ryan's brother David (killed in the Civil War) had authored the poem The Pilgrim. Her reference to Hannis Taylor's involvement in Ryan's first poetry collection tends to authenticate her account, because Taylor's name is mentioned nowhere in the printed edition. Yet we know from Col. Rapier's conversation in "An Afternoon in the Sunny South" that Taylor did indeed serve as an anonymous managing editor. Nellie Henry also recalls here that Fr. Ryan played a personal role in the preparation of that collection. This is important because the poems were gathered through an open solicitation sent by Rapier to newspapers across the South. Hannis Taylor, who later became a nationally distinguished attorney and Minister to Spain, presumably would not have been able to verify Ryan's authorship of the many poems that came streaming in without the poet's active involvement. Nellie Henry's memory, then, ironically strengthens the case for the collection's integrity as a whole, even as she asserts that Fr. Ryan was not himself the author of two of its poems. This editor finds Nellie Henry's claim quite credible, for Reunited includes probably the most uncharacteristically awkward lines in Ryan's collection, such as: Save--she was generous and her foe was crushed. The question of this poem's proper authorship had clearly not surfaced by the time of the Baltimore edition, for John Moran's "Memoir" of Fr. Ryan in that book emphasized the significance of "Reunited" without mentioning Nellie Henry. --DRB