author
Anna Hanson Dorsey
1815–1896
A pioneering voice in 19th-century Catholic fiction, she wrote popular novels that blended domestic drama, faith, and moral choice. Her work helped shape an early American readership for Catholic literature.
1 Audiobook
May Brooke
by Anna Hanson Dorsey
About the author
Born in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., in December 1815, Anna Hanson Dorsey was an American novelist best known for her role in 19th-century Catholic literature. She was born Anna Hanson McKenney, the daughter of Rev. William McKenney, a U.S. Navy chaplain, and later married Lorenzo Dorsey in 1837.
She converted to Catholicism in 1840, a turning point that strongly influenced her writing. For decades afterward, she devoted much of her work to Catholic fiction, earning a reputation as one of the earliest and most prominent American novelists in that tradition.
Dorsey wrote numerous novels, including Tangled Paths, The Old House at Glenarra, Adrift, Warp and Woof, and Palms. She died in Washington, D.C., in December 1896, and her daughter Ella Loraine Dorsey also became a writer.