Edith O'Shaughnessy (1876–1939)

Edith O'Shaughnessy, neé Coues, was born in Columbia, South Carolina to a wealthy Roman Catholic family.nShe was privately tutored and then attended a convent school in Maryland. After graduation, she went on a trip to Europe. In 1901, she married Nelson O’Shaughnessy, an American diplomat and lawyer educated at Oxford University, with whom she had a son. For the next 15 years, she accompanied her husband and served as hostess on his posts in Copenhagen, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Vienna, Bucharest, and Rio de Janeiro. After her husband's service as U.S. chargé d'affairs in Mexico City, Mexico, from 1911 to 1914, Edith published her first book to supplement their income, the memoir A Diplomat’s Wife in Mexico (1916). Its success promoted her next book Diplomatic Days (1917). She capitalized on her celebrity author status by campaigning against President Woodrow Wilson in the election of 1916, four years before women were eligible to vote. She went on to publish another six books, including a biography of Marie Adelaide, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, and a novel called Viennese Medley (1924); she also wrote the screenplay for a 1926 film adaptation called The Greater Glory. She was active in many Catholic church-related causes, spoke at Catholic schools and organizations, and was frequently a contributor to Catholic periodicals such as Commonweal.