Compassionate Stranger ─ Asenath Nicholson and the Great Irish Famine

Murphy tells how Nicholson (1792-1855) left her comfortable home in New York to help the Irish poor during the Great Irish Famine of 1845-52. She emphasizes how the austerity of her upbringing on a Vermont farm and her work as a school teacher and in nutrition gave her skills that she put to good use in Ireland. The topics include Puritan beginnings on the Vermont frontier, an errand in the wilderness 1844, Mayo in the winter of 1847-48, peace and progress in Britain and on the continent 1848-52, and last years. Annotation c2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Maureen O’Rourke Murphy is the Joseph L. Dionne Professor of Teaching, Literacy, and Leadership at Hofstra University. She is coeditor of An Irish Literature Reader: Poetry, Prose, Drama, the editor of Ireland’s Welcome to the Stranger, and Annals of the Famine in Ireland in 1847, 1848 and 1849 , and the Director of New York State’s Great Irish Famine Curriculum.