Finley Peter Dunne Biography

Dictionary of Literary Biography on Finley Peter Dunne

Finley Peter Dunne is not a familiar literary name, but the comic character he created, Mr. Martin Dooley of "Ar-rchey R-road," a Chicago Irish-American saloonkeeper, has enjoyed an enduring fame. Through Mr. Dooley's rambling monologues, skillfully blending satire with broadly exaggerated burlesques and verbal wit in a refreshing style of frank expression tempered by sentiment and good-natured sympathy, Finley Peter Dunne exerted considerable influence on national opinion during his career as a regional and national humorist from 1893 to 1926. Popular songs were composed about Mr. Dooley, a Broadway play was staged, and each hardbound collection of Mr. Dooley essays was a substantial best-seller. He was especially renowned during the years of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine insurrection when his ridicule of America's clumsy imperialism won for him a wide and keenly interested audience. In the years since his regular appearance as a public sage, Mr. Dooley has been frequently recalled by editorial writers, newspaper columnists, and politicians for his tartly phrased aphorisms--"Thrust ivrybody, but cut th' cards," for example; or, "I care not who makes th' laws iv a nation if I can get out an injunction."

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Finley Peter Dunne biography

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This biography contains 7,435 words (approx. 25 pages at 300 words per page).