TALBOT, FRANCIS XAVIER

Author, editor; b. Philadelphia, Pa., Jan. 25, 1889; d. Washington, D.C., Dec. 3, 1953. He was the youngest of the seven children of Patrick Francis and Bridget (Peyton) Talbot. Graduating from St. Joseph's High School, Philadelphia, in 1906, he entered the Society of Jesus at St. Andrew-on-Hudson, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., the same year. His philosophical studies were made at Woodstock College, Woodstock, Md. (1910–13). He taught at Loyola School, New York City (1913–16) and at Boston College, Mass. (1917–18). He was ordained at Woodstock on June 29, 1921. In 1923 he was named literary editor of the national Catholic weekly review, America, and became editor in chief in 1936. He was president of Loyola College, Baltimore, Md. from 1947 to 1950. After a brief period as archivist at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., he was appointed parish priest at St. Aloysius Church, Washington, D.C., in August 1950. He next engaged in retreat work at Manresa-on-the-Severn at Annapolis, Md. (1952–53). Shortly after returning to parish work at Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown, D.C., he died on the feast of his patronal saint.

Talbot's contribution to the cultural and intellectual life of U.S. Catholicism sprang particularly from his vision in guiding the beginnings of many organizations and activities that were destined to remain vigorous. Such were the Catholic Book Club (1928), the Catholic Poetry Society (1930), and the Spiritual Book Associates (1932). Under his editorship of America, the journal Theological Studies (now published at Woodstock College, Woodstock, Md.) was inaugurated. Talbot was active also in the organization of the Catholic Theatre Conference and of the Catholic Library Association, and from 1924 to 1936 was chaplain of and advisor to the National Motion Picture Bureau of the International Federation of Catholic Alumnae. His writings were: Jesuit Education in Philadelphia (1927), Richard Henry Tierney (1930), Shining in Darkness (1932), Saint Among Savages (1935), and Saint Among the Hurons (1949). He contributed frequently to the Encyclopaedia Britannica and to the Britannica Yearbook. He edited The Eternal Babe (1927), The America Book of Verse (1928), and Fiction by Its Makers (1928).

[h. c. gardiner]