Edward Francis Murphy, SSJ (1892 – 1975) was an American playwright, novelist, educator, and

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

priest known for creating the "first Catholic best-seller", the novel '' The Scarlet Lily''. He was also a close friend of

Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...

and introduced him to the Black community, inspiring his novel ''

Kingsblood Royal ''Kingsblood Royal'' is a 1947 novel by American writer Sinclair Lewis. Synopsis The protagonist, Neil Kingsblood, a white middle-class man, discovers while researching his family background that he is directly descended from an African adventure ...

''.

Biography

Murphy was born in 1892 in

South Salem, New York South Salem is a hamlet in the Town of Lewisboro, Westchester County, in the U.S. state of New York. Part of the New York metropolitan area, the town center has a post office, town hall, library, and recycling center. Notable residents have incl ...

, in the upstate region of the state. His family was Irish Catholic, he grew up in Derby Street, and attended St Mary's parish and school. As a teenager, he was groomed by the philanthropist

Caroline Emmerton Caroline Osgood Emmerton (1866–1942) was a wealthy philanthropist from Salem, Massachusetts, USA, who established The House of the Seven Gables as a house museum also known as the Turner-Ingersoll mansion in 1908. With a fortune inherited from h ...

, who had founded

The House of the Seven Gables ''The House of the Seven Gables: A Romance'' is a Gothic novel written beginning in mid-1850 by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne and published in April 1851 by Ticknor and Fields of Boston. The novel follows a New England family and their anc ...

Settlement Association and sought to bring Murphy under her artistic patronage.

Priesthood

Instead, Murphy followed his brother Will's footsteps to become a Catholic priest, enrolling at

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Epiphany Apostolic College Epiphany Apostolic College, formerly known as the Josephite Collegiate Seminary, was a Catholic Church, Catholic minor seminary founded in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland in 1889 by John R. Slattery for the Mill Hill Missionaries, a United Kingdom, ...

, the

minor seminary A minor seminary or high school seminary is a secondary day or boarding school created for the specific purpose of enrolling teenage boys who have expressed interest in becoming Catholic priests. They are generally Catholic institutions, and ...

of the Society of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart (aka the Josephites). The society, founded in 1893, dedicates itself to serving

African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

. Murphy was ordained in 1918, and celebrated his first Mass at St James Catholic Church in his hometown, before returning to the DC metro to attend

Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U.S. ...

, where he attained a doctorate in philosophy. After ordination, Murphy served near

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where he ran into a childhood friend who had by then become known as

Eddie Dowling Eddie Dowling (born Joseph Nelson Goucher; December 11, 1889Date and year of birth as per baptismal records of Precious Blood church, Woonsocket, Rhode Island, where Dowling was christened — February 18, 1976) was an American actor, director, ...

. They would maintain their friendship thereafter. In 1932, Murphy was reassigned to

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, where he served at a Josephite parish and also as dean of religion and philosophy at

Xavier University of Louisiana Xavier University of Louisiana (also known as XULA) is a Private university, private, Historically black colleges and universities, historically black, Roman Catholic, Catholic university in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the only Catholic HBCU ...

, an

HBCU Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...

founded by

Katharine Drexel Katharine Drexel, SBS (born Catherine Mary Drexel; November 26, 1858 – March 3, 1955) was an American heiress, philanthropist, religious sister, educator, and foundress of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. She was the second person born i ...

less than a decade before.

Theater

During his time at the school, Murphy continued to cultivate his artistic ventures via the students, helping them to stage plays and other works to raise the profile of the university. The

Black Press Black Press Group Ltd. is a Canadian publisher of prominent daily newspapers in Hawaii and Alaska and numerous non-daily newspapers in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada, and (via Sound Publishing) the U.S. state of Washington. Black Press M ...

took interest in their work, and prominent African Americans in the city also supported, helping them to gain more prominent venues for their productions. Murphy also kept busy with personal projects, including a play based on the life of

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cru ...

, understood to be a converted prostitute who was mentioned in the gospel narratives. During his XULA tenure, Murphy received from Dowling the rights to the latter's hit 1938 play ''

Shadow and Substance ''Shadow and Substance ''is a four-act play written in 1937 by Paul Vincent Carroll. In 1938 it won the New York Drama Critics' Circle award for best foreign play. Description Set in Ireland, the play has a cast of six men and four women. Accor ...

'', free of charge, which Murphy eventually passed on to a local company in the Crescent City. They would stage an adaptation starring

as a priest himself, who became a lifelong friend to Murphy (and received inroads from him to the Black community, inspiring his novel ''

''). Murphy adapted his Mary Magdalene play into a 1944 novel '' The Scarlet Lily''. Hollywood filmmaker

David Selznick David O. Selznick (May 10, 1902June 22, 1965) was an American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive who produced ''Gone with the Wind'' (1939) and ''Rebecca'' (1940), both of which earned him an Academy Award for Best Picture. E ...

obtained the right to adapt the novel for the screen after it became known as "the first Catholic best-seller". Selznick planned to have

Ingrid Bergman Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films, television movies, and plays.Obituary ''Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, she is often ...

star as the Magdalene, but the project eventually fell through.

Death

Murphy died in 1975.

Works

* The Tenth Man (1937) * The Scarlet Lily (1944) * Mademoiselle Lavalliere (1948) * Yankee Priest (1952)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Edward African-American Roman Catholicism Josephite Fathers Xavier University of Louisiana Catholic University of America alumni 1892 births 1975 deaths Epiphany Apostolic College St. Joseph's Seminary (Washington, DC)