Life
1852-1924 [Maurice Francis Egan]; b. 21 May; son of Irish immigrant of
1820s, who settled in Philadelphia and m. into an Irish family of older
provenance; ed. La Salle Academy, and later Georgeton Univ.; published
poetry in Ave Maria and Sacred Heart Messenger; but also
Saturday Evening Post; The Century; wrote That Girl of
Mine (1887) in fulfilment of contract made by his lawyer-boss with
a publisher; followed with That Lover of Mine; wrote fiction showing
Irishmen learning to practice their religion in an American context; professor
of English, Notre Dame Univ., Chicago, from 1888, and later at Catholic
Univ. of America, Washington D.C.; The Disappearance of Jong Longworthy
(1890); The Success of Patrick Desmond (1893); and The Vocation
of Edward Conway (1896); The Wiles of Sexton Maginnis (1909),
his most popular (dealing with a Shaughraun-character who never lies ‘except
in the interest of truth’; wrote by his own account 10-15,000 words
a week; friend of President Thedore Roosevelt; left academic life for diplomacy, and served
as US ambassador (minister) to Denmark, 1907-19; also Recollections
of a Happy Life (q.d.); introduced W. B. Yeats to Roosevelt at White
House lunch; covered novelists and contributed an essay entitled ‘Irish
Novels’ for Charles Welsh, Mgr. Ed. of Irish Literature (1904).
JMC
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Works
Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature (1904), gives ‘The
Orange Lilies’ from The Land of St. Lawrence, and ‘The
Shamrock’. Also, editorial essay, ‘Irish Novels’, in McCarthy,
gen. ed., Irish Literature (1904), Vol. VI, pp.vii-xvii; note that
this essay was previously printed as ‘On Irish Novels’ in Catholic
University Bulletin [Washington, D.C.], Vol. 10, No.3 (July 1904),
pp.329-41, a small difference showing in brief closing remarks on Seamus
MacManus added to the version anthology.
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Notes
Entry in Dictionary of American Biography.
Brian McKenna, Irish Literature (1978), p.4.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)