Regarded today principally as an author of juvenile fiction, Thomas Mayne Reid was in fact one of the most versatile writers of the mid-Victorian period. Besides boys' adventure tales and dime novels, Reid wrote poetry, plays, travelogues, and a treatise on croquet. But he is best known for romantic adventure novels such as The Rifle Rangers (1850), The Scalp Hunters (1851), and The Headless Horseman (1866). Although later appropriated by the juvenile reading public, these and over two dozen other novels were aimed at an adult audience--an audience that delighted in the fast-paced narrative, the exotic settings, and the admixture of sentimentality and sensationalism which characterized Reid's best work.

Reid was born in Ballyroney, County Down, Northern Ireland. His father was a Presbyterian clergyman, and it was assumed that young Reid would follow suit. But Reid--an impetuous and high-spirited youth--had no inclination toward the church, and in 1839 he abandoned his studies...