Book of the month: The poetry of Dr James Henry
James Henry was born in Dublin in 1798 and studied Classics at Trinity College before turning to medicine, graduating M.B. in 1822. He received the Licence of the College of Physicians in 1823 and was elected a Fellow in 1826. Despite being an outspoken critic of organized religion and also objecting to the high fees being charged by his professional brethren, he enjoyed a successful practice and rose to prominence in the College, serving as a Censor and being appointed Vice-President in 1831 and 1832.
In 1845, Henry inherited a large fortune and abandoned medicine entirely, in order to devote the remainder of his life to his first love, the study of the Classical poet, Virgil, and to write his own poetry. Accompanied by his wife and, later, his daughter, he travelled extensively in Europe to track down rare editions and manuscripts of Virgil. When his wife died at Lake Garda, he had her body cremated in a tile-maker's kiln and brought her ashes back to Ireland.
Henry's researches led to the publication of several translations and works of criticism of Virgil, which are well regarded. He was also writing his own poetry, which he published at his own expense, mostly in Dresden in Germany. In all, he produced five collections of verse plus two long narrative poems describing his travels, and several pamphlets of a satirical nature.
Henry's poetry went largely unnoticed and unread during his lifetime and for over 100 years after his death. He was "re discovered" in the 1980s by an American academic, Christopher Ricks, who came across the volumes by accident, uncut and unread, in the Cambridge University Library (while he was researching the famous American writer, Henry James). Ricks judged eight of Henry's poems to be good enough to include in the New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse, which he edited in 1987, and, in 2002, he edited The Selected Poems of James Henry, which was published first in America and then by the Lilliput Press in Ireland.
If Henry was largely forgotten and ignored by the literary establishment in the century after his death, he did not escape the notice of Dr. Kirkpatrick, the distinguished medical historian, who collected copies of almost all of Henry's publications. These are to be found in the Kirkpatrick Collection, which is now such a valuable part of the College Library.
It is pleasing to record that this distinguished Doctor/Poet is now receiving the recognition that he deserves and that the exceedingly rare copies of his published works are preserved in the College which he served so well during his medical career.
Robert Mills,
RCPI Librarian