Published by Benziger Brothers, New York, 1926. Apparent First Printing, with year appearing on bottom of title page and on copyright page, with no other printings listed. Scarce, fragile dust jacket has chipping, with tears, toning, and missing sections along spine. $1.00 price on DJ. 12mo. With frontispiece and decorative green cloth boards. Minimal wear to covers. Corners are slightly bumped. Inscription on FFEP. Small dust stains on fore edge. Binding is tight. Pages are crisp and clean.
From the dust jacket: How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.The Merchant of Venice, Act V, Sc. 2. Six of Father Finn's shorter stories are gathered here. From each shines the candle of some high deed. The scenes are colorful and varied: the Mississippi Valley, a Cincinnati tenement, an island in British Honduras--and each one has a distinct beam of its own.Content: "The Candle's Beam" tells how a dying priest saved a soul; "Roughneck" is the story of a young thief whom trust makes honest; "A Point of Honor" shows a dishonorable act as the means of a restoration to an honorable outlook; "Round Christmas Footlights" brings about the reconciliation of two hard business men; "Quick Action" gains two treasures, one valuable and the other worthless; "Ada Merton" effects many conversions.
"Father Francis J. Finn was born to Irish immigrant parents at St. Louis, Missouri in 1859. He loved to read Charles Dickens works as a boy, including The Pickwick Papers, and eventually became a priest thanks to the influence of Father Charles Coppens. After graduating from St. Louis University, he became a Jesuit and was ordained a priest in 1893. He had already begun writing his debut novel Tom Playfair prior to this, as he was assigned to St. Marys College in Kansas and dealt with unruly boys on a daily basis. He went on to write twenty-seven other books, and his novels for children were very successful. He was much loved by young people, and thousands of them gathered to honor his death in 1928. Francis Finn also wrote That Football Game, Claude Lightfoot, Ethelred Preston, Lucky Bob, His Luckiest Year, Facing Danger, and Cupid of Champion."