author
Theodore Maynard
1890–1956
Best known for vivid histories of American Catholic life, this English-born writer also worked as a poet, critic, and biographer. His books blend strong convictions with a lively, readable style that helped bring religious history to a wide audience.
1 Audiobook
Poems
by Theodore Maynard
About the author
Born in Madras, India, on November 3, 1890, to English Protestant missionary parents, Theodore Maynard grew up in England and later became a Roman Catholic in 1913. He was strongly influenced by G. K. Chesterton, and although he thought of himself chiefly as a poet, he went on to build a wide-ranging career as a literary critic, biographer, and historian.
Maynard moved to the United States in the early 1920s and spent the rest of his life there. During his career he wrote more than twenty books, with much of his best-known work centered on Catholic history in the United States. Readers especially remember him for making religious history feel energetic and accessible rather than distant or academic.
He died in Port Washington, New York, on October 18, 1956. Today he is remembered as a prolific Catholic man of letters whose writing connected poetry, faith, and historical storytelling.