Author: GANILH, Anthony
Biography:
GANILH, Anthony (fl 1830-40)
Possibly the Abbé Ganilh (b 1794) who appears in the catalogue of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris as author or contributor to three works in Catholic literature between 1818 and 1830, but if so, he contributed from outside the country. A native of France, Antoine or Anthony Ganilh arrived in the US and entered the seminary of St Thomas in Bardstown KY about 1817; he was ordained shortly thereafter. He taught at the seminary for a year or so and then became a priest at the Holy Cross congregation in Bardstown. From 1822 he served in Cincinnati but about 1832 returned to Bardstown as professor of modern languages in the College of St Joseph. He is best known for having written the first English novel about Texas--Mexico versus Texas (1838), later retitled Ambrosio de Latinez--under the pseudonym "A. T. Myrthe" and claiming to be "a Texian." His name does not appear in the Catholic Directory after 1841 and it seems most likely that he returned to France. The name is sometimes misspelled "Ganihl." (Benedict Joseph Webb, The Centenary of Catholicity in Kentucky [1884] 34-5; BNF catalogue) HJ