Of immense value to anyone interested in the Irish story in America.--The Boston Globe. This collection of three generations of Irish immigrant fiction excerpted from novels, magazines, and newspapers provides new insight into the nineteenth-century immigrant experience. It captures the spirit of those who were experiencing the traumas of adjustment and assimilation. The men and women authors of these pieces vividly render the details of immigrant life in a variety of settings, from Virginia and Nebraska to San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston, from 1820 to 1906. Fanning places each selection in its historical and cultural context by means of introductory notes. Together, they provide the most extended, continuous body of literature available to us by members of a single American ethnic group. This new edition provides some additional selections as well as new background material. Charles Fanning is Professor of English at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Table of contents
• Acknowledgements
• About the author
• Introduction
• PART I. BEFORE THE FAMINE: SATIRIC VOICES
  • The Life and Travels of Father Quipes, Otherwise Dominick O’Blarney (1820)
  • The Life of Paddy O’Flarrity (1834)
  • Six Months in a House of Correction; or, the Narrative of Dorah Mahony (1835)
  • The Priest’s Turf-Cutting Day, A Historical Romance, by Thomas C. Mack (1841)
  • The Adventures of Tom Stapleton, by John McDermott Moore (1842)
  • The Wilderness; or, Braddock’s Times, A Tale of the West, by James McHenry (1823)
• PART II. THE FAMINE GENERATION: PRACTICAL FICTION FOR IMMIGRANTS
  • John O’Brien; or, The Orphan of Boston, by John T. Roddan (1850)
  • The Blakes and Flanagans, by Mary Anne (Madden) Sadlier (1855)
  • The Cross and the Shamrock; or, How to Defend the Faith, by Hugh Quigley (1853)
  • Bickerton; or, The Immigrant’s Daughter, by Charles James Cannon (1855)
  • Mary Lee, or the Yankee in Ireland, by John Boyce (1860)
  • The Life and Adventures of Private Miles O’Reilly, by Charles G. Halpine (1864)
  • The Lost Rosary; or, Our Irish Girls, Their Trials, Temptations, and Triumphs, by Peter McCorry (1870)
  • Annie Reilly; or, The Fortunes of an Irish Girl in New York, by John McElgun (1873)
• PART III. THE THIRD GENERATION: LITERATURE FOR A NEW MIDDLE CLASS
  • The Aliens, A Novel, by Henry F. Keenan (1886)
  • “The Rise and Fall of ‘The Irish Aigle,’ ” by George H. Jessop (1888)
  • “Slob Murphy,” by James W. Sullivan (1895)
  • Père Monnier’s Ward, by William A. McDermott (1898)
  • The Art of Disappearing, by John Talbot Smith (1899)
  • “The Stepmother,” by Kate McPhelim Cleary (1901)
  • Lalor’s Maples, by Katherine E. Conway (1901)
  • “The Exiles,” by Harvey J. O’Higgins (1906)
  • Mr. Dooley’s Bridgeport Chronicle, 1893-1898, by Finley Peter Dunne
  • Mr. Dooley’s Bridgeport Chronicle, 1893-1898, by Finley Peter Dunne
• Plate Section