Poet of the Lost Cause: A Life of Father Ryan (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Poet of the Lost Cause: A Life of Father Ryan David O'Connell Poet of the Lost Cause: A Life of Father Ryan. By Donald Robert Beagle and Bryan Albin Giemza. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. 2008. Pp. xii, 342. $48.95. ISBN 978-1-572-33606-3.) The present study brings forth much welcome information and enhances our knowledge of the life and times of Abram J. Ryan, C.M. (1838–86), the "Poet-Priest of the South." In my biography of Ryan, Furl That Banner(Macon, GA, 2006), I focused mainly on the facts of Ryan's life, wanting to erase the myths that certain people, apparently with good intentions, had created about Ryan after his death—myths that Ryan himself might have fostered. Donald Robert Beagle and Bryan Albin Giemza, coauthors of Poet of the Lost Cause,have produced a much more ambitious volume than mine, one that is much wider in scope and that reflects access to documentation that was not available to me. It also adds important background information about the life and times of Ryan, and situates him and his work in relationship to what other Irish Catholic writers were attempting to accomplish in the late-nineteenth century. Any coauthored book risks having its unwieldy moments. In this instance, an archivist-historian and a literary critic, each with a different approach and writing style, have brought forth a final product that is somewhat less than seamless. That said, this is still an informative and, indeed, an important book. It breaks new ground by suggesting new ways of reading certain of Ryan's poems, including fresh observations on his obvious connections to Edgar Allan Poe. Ryan and his work are properly seen as romantic in nature, for he came of age in those years when romantic sentimentalism was a dominant strain in American letters. Boldly and convincingly, the authors link Ryan's particular brand of sentimental self-absorption to the current academic interest in sentimentalist writing in nineteenth-century American literature. They also show how he and his work can be connected to Allen Tate and the Agrarians, Flannery O'Connor, William Faulkner, and, of course, Margaret Mitchell. In fact, they have the courage to ask: "What then are we to make of southern histories that depict Catholics as cultural outsiders, when southern Irish Catholics such as Father Ryan and Margaret Mitchell participated in the very inventionof southernness?" (p. 258; emphasis in original).This book makes it clear that Ryan's overall cultural impact on the South is undeniable, albeit largely ignored by the traditional historiography. With regard to his poetry, the authors' claims are more modest and judicious, but they rightly suggest that his best poems deserve to be remembered and appreciated. Unfortunately, with regard to Ryan's life, the book sometimes falls back into the old romantic (as opposed to strictly historical and documentable) approach to Ryan's life. For example, especially informative were the pages on the nature of the service rendered by Confederate freelance chaplains during the Civil War. Here the authors break new ground, as they argue that while Ryan never officially served as a chaplain, it is safe to conclude that he did indeed serve in this capacity on an ad hocbasis as needed by Confederate [End Page 880]commanders and according to his own personal obligations. The problem, however, is to discern, based on evidence, when and where this chaplain service most likely took place. It is argued here, for instance, that as early as 1861 Ryan was absent from his duties as a Vincentian seminarian to serve as a chaplain with Confederate units in Virginia. Although Beagle and Giemza admit that "O'Connell is correct that no known external documentation puts Ryan with Confederate troops in 1861–62" (p. 49), they still argue that he was intermittently away at distant battlefields in Virginia, including a cameo appearance at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862 where he allegedly ministered to both Union and Confederate soldiers at Marye's Heights. In fact, Ryan was not traipsing around Virginia battlefields, because he was in the throes of what we would call today a nervous breakdown...