Francis J. Finn

Before 1865, most American Catholic Literature was either translated from French, German, or Flemish books, or reprints from English and Irish works.[5]

At St. Mary's College Finn learned how to teach and discipline boys. If they promised to behave, he promised to tell them a story. He began with Oliver Twist. One afternoon while supervising a class busy writing a composition, Mr. Finn thought of how they represented to him the typical American Catholic boy. With nothing else to do, he took up pencil and paper. “Why not write about such boys as are before me?” he asked himself. In no time at all he had dashed off the first chapter of Tom Playfair. He went on to write 26 more.

According to the American Catholic Who's Who, Fr. Finn is “universally acknowledged the foremost Catholic writer of fiction for young people.” His books were available in Braille, and were translated into French, German, Flemish, Italian, Polish, Bohemian, Hungarian, Spanish, Caledonian and Portuguese. It was Fr. Finn's lifelong conviction that "One of the greatest things in the world is to get the right book into the hands of the right boy or girl. No one can indulge in reading to any extent without being largely influenced for better or worse."[3] —Wikipedia