Madrigali

Thomas Augustine Daly (1871-1948), or T.A. Daly as he is usually known, was born into an Irish Catholic family in Philadelphia. His parents opened the first Catholic Bookshop in that city. He attended boarding school until age 14, then transferred to Villanova College. He attended but did not graduate from Fordham University.

Jokingly claiming his majors had been baseball and smoking, he worked in a grocery store but soon became a reporter and then an editorialist with the Philadelphia Record newspaper. He went on to manage the Catholic Standard and Times, while writing a clippings column to which he contributed humorous verse.

Daly became a member of the American Press Humorists and began giving speeches and recitations, becoming a popular after-dinner speaker while touring America and the U.K.