Father Rowland, A North American Tale appeared anonymously in Baltimore in 1829. Its author, the Rev. Charles Constantine Pise, was at the time a 27-year-old priest just taking up his parish in Baltimore, and his own account of writing the book, published some years later, is worth quoting: 

 In the commencement of my ministry in Baltimore, a little tale was published in that city by the Protestant press, entitled "Father Clement," written expressly against the Church. . . . I then determined to return a "Roland for an Oliver," and composed "Father Rowland," which became the avant-courier of numberless other little volumes of a similar character. 

Father Roland is a pretty bad novel, but Father Pise's Catholic readers must have been much pleased when at the tale's end a family not unlike that of George Washington is converted to the Church by a Jesuit not unlike John Carroll. They liked it well enough that three further editions appeared in the next dozen years. 

The Special Collections Division has long held a small quantity of Pise's papers, including a journal of his voyage to Rome in 1820 and a number of literary manuscripts. The recent acquisition of the first edition of Father Rowland (known only in a small handful of copies) rounds out nicely Georgetown's collection of Pise's printed works, which include speeches, poetry, and a 5-volume history of the Church.