Anna Hanson Dorsey | |
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Born | 1815 |
Died | December 26, 1896 Washington, D.C. | (aged 80–81)
Occupation | Writer |
Nationality | American |
Genre | Novels, short stories |
Notable awards | Laetare Medal |
Spouse | Lorenzo Dorsey |
Anna Hanson Dorsey (1815 – 26 December 1896) was an American novelist and short story writer. A convert to Catholicism, she was a pioneer of Catholic literature in the United States.
Born Anna Hanson in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., she was the daughter of William McKenney, a chaplain in the U.S. Navy, and Chloe Ann Lanigan McKenney.[1] In 1837 she married Lorenzo Dorsey, a Baltimore judge.[2] Their only son died fighting on the Union side in the American Civil War.[1] Her daughter, Ella Loraine Dorsey, was an author.[3]
Dorsey converted to Catholicism in 1840 and thereafter devoted herself to Catholic literature, mainly in the form of stories and novels, although she wrote a small amount of poetry as well.[1] Her more than 40 novels frequently centered on a religious conversion narrative aimed at her largely Protestant audiences, and her New York Times obituary referred to her as a pioneer of Catholic literature in the United States.[2] Her plots tended towards melodrama, with elements such as mistaken identities, mysterious disappearances, and false accusations.[2] Her novel Coaina: The Rose of the Algonquins was translated into both German and Hindustani and also made into a stage play.[1] At least two of her novels — The Student of Blenheim Forest (1847) and The Sister of Charity (1850) — were still in print at the end of the century.[2]
Pope Leo XIII twice sent her his benediction, and the University of Notre Dame conferred upon her the Laetare Medal.[4]
She died in Washington, D.C.