author
Mary Catherine Crowley
1856–1920
A Boston-born writer of poems, stories, and novels, she brought a warm, lively voice to children’s literature and Catholic periodicals in the late 19th century. Writing at times under the pen name Janet Grant, she also drew on a wide range of interests, including music, languages, and history.
1 Audiobook
Apples, Ripe and Rosy, Sir And Other Stories for Boys and Girls
by Mary Catherine Crowley
About the author
Born in Boston on November 28, 1856, Mary Catherine Crowley grew into a versatile American author whose work reached readers through poems, short fiction, novels, and historical writing. She began publishing in the 1870s and contributed to well-known magazines for young people and general readers, including Wide Awake, St. Nicholas, Ladies' Home Journal, and The Pilot.
Crowley was also known by the pen name Janet Grant. Contemporary accounts describe her as an accomplished musician and linguist, and those broad interests seem to echo through the range of her writing. Alongside books for children, she wrote longer works such as A Daughter of New France, showing a taste for both storytelling and history.
She spent part of her later career in Detroit after traveling in Europe, and she continued to build a reputation as a popular Catholic author. Crowley died on May 4, 1920, leaving behind a body of work that blends moral warmth, historical curiosity, and an easy gift for narrative.