User:Jeremygbyrne/Irskine Henry

Irskine Henry (189? – 1983) was born Henryk Wojciech Bobrowski, in Ustka on the Baltic coast. Like Joseph Conrad, he was a Pole who joined the British merchant navy (though his years at sea were in the age of steam, from 1911 to 1926) and like Conrad, when he began to write Bobrowski chose an English nom de plume &mdash; except that unlike Conrad he chose it when his English was still a bit shaky, so he spelt "Erskine" with an initial "I".

Henry's first published works were travelogues and short guides to various obscure ports and close inland destinations, primarily on the west coast of Africa. Published in London magazines like The Pictorial Gaze and A Briton's View, the articles were illustrated with Henry's own sketches, for he was an accomplished if not inspired artist, particularly in architectural drawing. This led some later commentators on his life and work to speculate that his father or some relative was an architect or perhaps a shipbuilder. However this remains mere guesswork, as Henry never wrote or spoke about his family and no records are extant.

Irskine Henry’s first novel was published in 1929 by the firm Hoode & Carroll, who would go on to publish all but two of his nine novels. Most of the books were very successful in their time, and went through multiple printings. It is very rare to find a first edition of any of the pre-World War II books in good condition.