CARLETON, WILLIAM (1794-1869), Irish novelist, was born at Prillisk, Clogher, Co. Tyrone, on March 4, As his father removed from one small farm to another, William attended at various places the hedge-schools, which used to be a notable feature of Irish life. Most of his learning was gained from a curate named Keenan, who taught a classical school at Donagh (Co. Monaghan), which Carleton attended from 1814 to 1816 with the intention of becoming a priest. After various experi ments in earning his living he set out for Dublin, and arrived in the metropolis with 2S. 9d. in his pocket. He first sought occupa tion as a bird-stuffer, but a proposal to use potatoes and meal as stuffing failed to recommend him. He then determined to become a soldier, but the colonel of the regiment in which he desired to enlist persuaded him (Carleton had applied in Latin) to give up the idea. He obtained some teaching and a clerkship in a Sunday school office, began to contribute to the journals, and his paper "The Pilgrimage to Lough Derg," which was published in the Christian Examiner, excited great attention. In 1830 appeared the first series of Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry, which at once placed the author in the first rank of Irish novelists. A second series, containing, among other stories, "Tubber Derg, or the Red Well," appeared in 1833, and Tales of Ireland in From that time till within a few years of his death Carleton's literary activity was incessant. "Fardoroughc the Miser, or the Convicts of Lisnamona" appeared in 1837-38 in the Dublin Uni versity Magazine. Among his other famous novels are: Valentine McClutchy, the Irish Agent, or Chronicles of the Castle Cumber Property (1845); The Black Prophet, a Tale of the Famine, in the Dublin University Magazine (1846), printed separately in the next year; The Emigrants of Aliadarra (1847); Willy Reilly and his dear Colleen Bawn, in The Independent (London, 185o) ; and The Tithe Proctor (1849), the violence of which did his reputa tion harm among his own countrymen. Some of his later stories, The Squanders of Castle Squander (185 2) for instance, are defaced by the mass of political matter with which they are over loaded. Carleton remained poor, but in 1848 a pension of I200 a year was granted by Lord John Russell in response to a memorial on Carleton's behalf, signed by numbers of distinguished persons in Ireland. He died at Sandford, Co. Dublin, on Jan.
30, 1869.
Carleton's best work is contained in the Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry. He wrote from intimate acquaintance with the scenes he described; and he drew with a sure hand a series of pictures of peasant life, unsurpassed for their appreciation of the passionate tenderness of Irish home life, of the buoyant humour and the domestic virtues, which would, under better circum stances, bring prosperity and happiness. He alienated the sympa thies of many Irishmen, however, by his unsparing criticism and occasional exaggeration of the darker side of Irish character. During the last months of his life Carleton began an autobiography which he brought down to the beginning of his literary career. This forms the first part of The Life of William Carleton .. (1896) , by D. J. O'Donoghue, which contains full information.