THOMAS

See also:

• MAYNE, JASPER (1604-1672)

MAYNE

See also:

• REID, ROBERT (1862– )
• REID, SIR GEORGE (1841- )
• REID, SIR ROBERT GILLESPIE (184o-19o8)
• REID, SIR WILLIAM (1791-1858)
• REID, THOMAS (1710-1796)
• THOMAS MAYNE REID (1818-1883)
• REID, WHITELAW (1837- )

REID (1818-1883)  , better known as MAYNE REID, British novelist, the son of a Presbyterian minister, was born at Ballyroney, Co . Down, Ireland, on the 4th of April 1818 . His own early life was as adventurous as any boy reader of his novels could desire . He was educated for the church, but did not take orders, and when twenty years old went to America in search of excitement and fortune . He made trading excursions on the Red river, studying the ways of the red man and the white pioneer . He made acquaintance with the Missouri in the same manner, and roved through all the states of the Union . In Philadelphia, where he was engaged in journalism from 1843 to 1846, he made the acquaintance of Edgar Allan Poe . When the war with Mexico broke out in 1846 he obtained a captain's commission, was present at the siege and capture of Vera Cruz, and led a forlorn hope at Chapultepec, where he sustained such severe injuries that his life was despaired of . In one of his novels he says that he believed theoretically in the military value of untrained troops, and that he had found his theories confirmed in actual warfare . An enthusiastic republican, he offered his services to the Hungarian insurgents in 1849, raised a body of volunteers, and sailed for Europe, but arrived too late . He then settled in England, and began his career of a novelist with the publication, in 185o, of the Rifle Rangers . This was followed next year by the Scalp Hunters .

He never surpassed his first productions, except perhaps in The White

Chief (18J9) and The Quadroon (1856): but he continued to produce tales of self-reliant enter-prise and exciting adventure with great fertility . Simplicity ofplot and easy variety of exciting incident are among the merits that contribute to his popularity with boys . His reflections are not profound, but are frequently more sensible than might be presumed at first from his aggressive manner of expressing them . He died in London on the 22nd of October 1883 . See Memoir (189o) by his widow, Elizabeth Mayne Reid .