1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Dunne, Finley Peter

DUNNE, FINLEY PETER (1867–  ), American journalist and humorist, was born, of Irish descent, in Chicago, Illinois, on the 10th of July 1867. After a public school education he became a newspaper reporter (1885); he was city editor of the Chicago Times (1891–1892), a member of the editorial staff of the Chicago Evening Post and of the Chicago Times-Herald (1892–1897), and editor of the Chicago Journal (1897–1900). In 1900 he removed to New York city. Although for several years he had been contributing humorous sketches in Irish brogue to the daily papers, he did not come into prominence until he wrote for the Chicago Journal a series of satirical observations and reflections attributed to an honest Irish-American, Martin Dooley, the shrewd philosopher of Archey Road, on social and political topics of the day. These were widely copied by the press of America and England. The first published collection, Mr Dooley in Peace and in War (1898), was followed by several others, similar in subject-matter and method, including Mr Dooley in the Hearts of his Countrymen (1899), Mr Dooley’s Philosophy (1900), Mr Dooley’s Opinions (1901), Observations by Mr Dooley (1902), and Dissertations by Mr Dooley (1906). These books made their author widely known as the creator of a delightfully original character, and as a humorist of shrewd insight. In 1906 he became associate editor of the American Magazine.