author
Henry F. (Henry Francis) Keenan
1850–1928
A journalist and novelist with a sharp eye for politics and labor, he is best remembered for The Money-Makers, a reply to John Hay’s The Bread-Winners. His career moved from Civil War service and newspaper work into fiction and popular history.
1 Audiobook
The Iron Game: A Tale of the War
by Henry F. (Henry Francis) Keenan
About the author
Born in Rochester, New York, to Irish immigrant parents, he became an American journalist and author whose work often drew on politics, conflict, and public life. Sources describe him as having served in the United States Army during the Civil War while still very young, before returning to civilian life and moving into newspaper work.
He worked as a reporter and editor, including at the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, and went on to publish novels as well as historical writing. He is most closely associated with The Money-Makers (1885), published anonymously, which answered John Hay’s The Bread-Winners from a more labor-friendly point of view.
His other books include The Aliens, Trajan, The Iron Game, and The Conflict with Spain, showing a range that stretched from fiction to current-events history. He died in 1928.