Mrs. J. Sadlier (Mary Anne Madden Sadlier) (Dec. 31, 1820 - April 5, 1903). Wally Burke or the Irish Orphan in America

Sadlier was born in Cootehill, county Cavan, Ireland to Francis Madden, a prosperous merchant. Her mother died early in her life, and she was raised by her father. She contributed to La Bell Assemblee (London) at the age of eighteen. After her father's death in 1844, she emigrated to New York City. In 1846, she married James Sadlier who had established a Catholic publishing house in New York but managed a branch of the firm in Montreal, Canada.

During the fourteen years she lived in Montreal, Sadlier published a collection of short stories and several novels, and wrote for the Boston Pilot, the New York Tablet, and other Catholic journals. She became widely known as a writer of fiction and poetry of the Catholic faith (219). Her novels first appeared in serial form in Catholic newspapers both in the U.S. and Canada. She distrusted literature believing that it was dangerous to morality, but she argued that her use of the novel was the best means for helping young Irish Catholics resist the temptations of American Protestantism. After her husband's death in 1869, Sadlier focused more on religious and historical themes, but the increase in Irish immigration during the 1880's led to the republication of several of her earlier novels. These novels document mid-nineteenth century Irish life and reveal the tensions of Irish assimilation in America by encouraging assimilation in some respects yet forbidding it in others. For example, she was very critical of the Protestant domination of American institutions, and she affirmed the traditional Irish patriarchal family and hierarchical society. The Blakes and the Flanagans (1855) tells of a beating given to a fallen-away Catholic as if it was both satisfying and just. In contrast, Sadlier encouraged the Irish to adopt the "Yankee habits of thrift, sobriety, and hard work" (220), and in doing so, her writing was a force for the Americanization and assimilation of Irish immigrants. She was awarded Notre Dame's Laetare Medal for her efforts on behalf of the Catholic faith in 1895.

Willy Burke: A Tale of the Irish Orphan in America sold seven thousand copies within the first weeks of publication.

Brown, Thomas N. "Sadlier, Mary Anne Madden." Notable American Women, 1607 - 1950. Vol. III. Ed. Edward T. James. Massachusetts: Harvard, 1971.

Other sources:

William D. Kelly, "A Benefactress of Her Race." Ave Maria. Apr. 4, 1891.

Anna T. Sadlier, "Mrs. Sadlier's Early Life, Her Books and Friends." Donahoe's Mag. (Boston), Apr. 1903. Reprinted in the Boston Pilot, Apr. 11 1903.

Agnes Brady McGuire, "Catholic Women Writers," in Catholic Builders of the Nation. Vol. IV. Constantine E. Mc Guire, ed. 1923. 184 - 203