Margaret Frances Sullivan

For other people named Margaret Sullivan, see Margaret Sullivan (disambiguation).

Margaret Frances Sullivan
BornMargaret Frances Buchanan
1847
Drumquin, County Tyrone, Ireland
DiedDecember 28, 1903 (aged 55-56)
Chicago, Illinois
Resting placeDetroit, Michigan
Occupationauthor, journalist, editor
LanguageEnglish
Alma materAcademy of the Sacred Heart
Spouse
Alexander Sullivan
​
(m. 1874)​

Margaret Frances Sullivan (1847 – December 28, 1903) was an Irish-born American author, journalist, and editor. She contributed to the principal American magazines, and her editorials, though unsigned, caused national comment.[1] She was an editorial writer on Chicago daily newspapers and for journals in New York City and Boston; chief editorial writer for the Times-Herald, 1895; and editorial writer and art critic for the Chicago Chronicle, 1901.[2]

One of her editorials was on the subject of why there were so few Democrats in the North. It was reproduced by politicians and, at the time of her death, was reprinted as a perfect example of political editorial writing.[3] The Catholic World said, "She was ranked not with the distinguished women of the press but with the ablest men as Charles Anderson Dana of the New York Sun." Newspaper men who knew her admitted that she was, if not the greatest American editorial writer, at least the greatest that the city of Chicago had ever known.

Sullivan was sent to Paris, in 1889, as special cable correspondent of the Associated Press for the Universal Exposition.[2] At its opening ceremony, she was the only writer to whom a seat was assigned in line with the French president, and the only representative of the press thus invited to assist at the ceremony.[1] She was an authority on art, literature, science, politics, music and economics. Naturally gifted as she was, her remarkable power of concentration and the intense tenacity with which she applied herself made it easy for her to master any subject to which she devoted herself.[4] Sullivan's Ireland of Today reached a sale of 30,000 copies. She co-authored Mexico, Picturesque, Political and Progressive with Mary Elizabeth McGrath Blake, of Boston.[1]

  1. ^ a b c McBride 1897, p. 380.
  2. ^ a b Leonard & Marquis 1901, p. 1103.
  3. ^ Saint Mary's College 1918, p. 7-8.
  4. ^ Saint Mary's College 1918, p. 9.