J. Frank Hanly

J. Frank Hanly was an Indiana lawyer, politician, editor, and public speaker whose writing emerged from civic life. Andersonville came from Jennings and Graham in 1912, well before the later novel of the same name by MacKinlay Kantor. Hanly was born James Franklin Hanly in 1863, entered the Indiana bar in 1889, served in the state senate and United States House of Representatives, and became governor of Indiana from 1905 to 1909. His career also included reform advocacy and newspaper work, fields that relied on the forceful public language for which he was known. His historical and political writing also includes public addresses and collected gubernatorial messages. Modern reprints sometimes compress his name into awkward forms, but contemporary and biographical records identify the author as J. Frank Hanly. Andersonville offers readers a lesser-known literary dimension of a figure more commonly remembered for law, government, and reform campaigning.