• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Irish America

Irish America

  • HOME
  • WHO WE ARE
    • ABOUT US
    • OUR CONTRIBUTORS
  • IN THIS ISSUE
  • HALL OF FAME
  • THE LISTS
    • BUSINESS 100
    • HALL OF FAME
    • HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES 50
    • WALL STREET 50
  • LIBRARY
  • TRAVEL
  • EVENTS

Burns Library Exhibit on Writer Louise Imogen Guiney

By Irish America Staff
March / April 2020

March 1, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Louise Imogen Guiney (1861-1920), an American poet and essayist with ties to nineteenth-century Boston literary circles, is the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the John J. Burns Library, on display through May 29.

Devoted Catholic & Determined Writer: Louise Imogen Guiney in Boston focuses on Guiney’s relationships with Catholic religious leaders, ­­fellow writers, and publishers in Boston. She wrote poetry (first published in John Boyle O’Reilly’s Pilot), and later, stories and biographical essays. Her choice of subjects was informed by her Catholic beliefs, admiration for Jesuits, and sojourns in Ireland and England. Guiney may have faded from the canon, yet she continues to offer a unique window into the multifaceted literary establishment of late nineteenth-century Boston, according to exhibition curator Barbara Adams Hebard, a conservator at Burns Library, who notes that Guiney is one of only two women represented in Bapst Library’s stained-glass portraits of American authors, housed at Boston College.

Guiney’s Irish-born father was an officer in the “Fighting Ninth” Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry regiment, an Irish heritage unit that engaged in crucial Civil War battles. Active in law, politics, and Irish and Catholic organizations, he developed influential connections that aided his widow and only daughter following his early death from war-related injuries in 1877. By then, Boston had become a major hub for education, publishing, and the arts, and Guiney benefited from her father’s network. But it was her own drive to write – first, poetry, and later, short stories and biographical essays – that earned her acclaim in literary circles. ♦

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Highlights

News
Articles and stories from Irish America.....
MORE

Hibernia
News from Ireland and happenings in Irish America.....
MORE

Those We Lost
Remembering some of the great Irish Americans who have passed.....
MORE

Slainte!
Discover Irish ancestry, predilections, and recipes.....
MORE

Photo Album
Irish America readers share the stories of their ancestors....
MORE

More Articles

  • The new Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's University, Belfast.

    Queen's Builds on Legacy of Seamus Heaney

    The work of Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet Seamus Heaney will inspire generations of future writers ...
  • Quote/Unquote Fall 2023

    Quote/Unquote Fall 2023

    "I have said repeatedly that there should be a humanitarian ceasefire to meet the urgent basic needs...
  • A Portrait of George Moore and Modern Ireland

    A Portrait of George Moore and Modern Ireland

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art has recently opened a remarkable exhibition titled “Manet/Degas,” whi...
  • Niall O'Dowd with Loretta Brennan Glucksman (center), co-chair of the Glucksman Ireland House at NYU, and Niall's wife Debbie McGoldrick, the Editor of the Irish Voice at the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick dinner on March 16. Photo courtesy John Sanderson/AnnieWatt.com

    How the Irish Famine Changed American History

    Niall O'Dowd, Irish America's publisher, was the guest of honor at the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick...

Footer

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Subscribe

  • Subscribe
  • Give a Gift
  • Newsletter

Additional

  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Terms of Use & Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 · IrishAmerica Child Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in