Writer Louise Imogen Guiney: Irish Women of Massachusetts

Louise Imogen Guiney

(1861-1920)

Louise Guiney was born in Roxbury, the daughter of an Irish immigrant, General Patrick Guiney, who was a war hero in the American Civil War. In fact, she traveled as a child with her mother to Virginia, where the Massachusetts Irish Ninth Regiment was stationed. She began publishing poems in the Boston Pilot under the initials P.O.L. with references to Latin, Greek and Medieval poetry, and readers assumed she was ‘a bright Harvard boy.’ She published a number of books, including Songs at the Start, Goose-Quill Papers and The White Sail. Her final work was entitled Happy Endings.

Louise Imogen Guiney is part of BITA's 2019 Irish Women of Massachusetts series in celebration of Irish Heritage Month and Women's History Month.

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