In fact, Carleton's novels were so popular in America that a collected works had five American editions between 18.

Whitman's recommendation was made on the basis of his own and his readers' familiarity with Carleton's Fardorougha, which had an American edition in 1840 and was widely read.

The unnamed author, whom Whitman seems to assume his readers will know, was William Carleton (1794–1869, one of Ireland's finest nineteenth-century novelists. The editor had 'no doubt' that it would 'be found good reading.' 1 from the pen of one of the most popular Irish writers, the author of 'Fardorougha, the Miser,'' was available at a local bookstore. On May 27, 1846, just four days short of his twenty-seventh birthday, the editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, Walter Whitman as he was known then, informed his readers that ''Valentine M'Clutchy, the Irish Agent'.