Background
He was born in Philadelphia, Pa. , the son of Patrick Francis and Bridget Peyton Talbot.
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He was born in Philadelphia, Pa. , the son of Patrick Francis and Bridget Peyton Talbot.
He graduated from St. Joseph's Preparatory School, Philadelphia.
In 1908 he made his vows as a member of the Jesuit order and then spent another two years studying the classics at St. Andrew. In 1910 he transferred to Woodstock (Md. ) College to begin three years of philosophical studies.
Talbot taught English at Loyola School in New York City from 1913 to 1916 and was an instructor in religion at Boston College in 1917-1918. He returned to Woodstock for theological studies in 1918 and was ordained a Roman Catholic priest there on June 29, 1921. After a final year of spiritual training (1922 - 1923) at St. Andrew, he became literary editor of the Jesuit weekly America, published in New York City. He was a staff member for twenty-one years, becoming editor in chief of America and Catholic Mind from 1936 to 1944.
He was then named regional director for the middle Atlantic states of the Jesuit Institute of Social Order, with headquarters at Georgetown University. While in Washington, D. C. , he also served as assistant archivist and auxiliary chaplain with the United States Army at Fort Meyer, Va. From 1947 to 1950 he was president of Loyola College, Baltimore, Md.
His last three years were spent as assistant archivist at Georgetown, parish priest at St. Aloysius and Holy Trinity churches in Washington, and director of spiritual retreats at Manresa-on-Severn, Annapolis, Md. Talbot's years at America were remarkable for his creative organizational contributions. He brought a broad spectrum of Roman Catholic literary figures to the magazine and was responsible for increased coverage in the fields of poetry, literary criticism, and drama. Under his direction the magazine took an aggressive, militant tone, and its style tended to the rhetorical.
From 1924 to 1936 he was chaplain to the National Motion Picture Bureau of the International Federation of Catholic Alumnae, whose members reviewed films for the Legion of Decency. Talbot's publications included Richard Henry Tierney (1930), a biography of the crusading editor under whom he joined America; Shining in Darkness (1932), dramas of the Nativity and Resurrection; Saint Among Savages (1935), a study of the French missionary Isaac Jogues, killed by Mohawk Indians near Auriesville, N. Y. , in 1646; and Saint Among the Hurons (1949), a chronicle of the missionary career of Jean de Brébeuf, a French Jesuit killed by the Iroquois in Canada in 1649. He also edited The Eternal Babe (1927), The America Book of Verse (1928), and Fiction by Its Makers (1928). In addition Talbot contributed several articles to the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the Roman Catholic Church.
An enthusiast for causes, he supported the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War (1936 - 1939) and in cooperation with American Roman Catholic bishops and Catholic institutions he organized the America Spanish Relief Fund for victims of the war, especially children in Nationalist-held areas. He spent his last years quietly in pastoral ministry and died in Washington, D. C.
He entered the Society of Jesus at St. Andrew-on-the-Hudson, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. , on August 15, 1906.
In 1925 Talbot became a trustee of the United States Catholic Historical Society, and he later founded several organizations: the Catholic Book Club (1928), Spiritual Book Associates (1932), and the Pro Parvulis Society (1934) to promote books for children. He conceived the idea of the Catholic Poetry Society (1930) and was active in the Catholic Theatre Conference and the Catholic Library Association.
Talbot had a romantic and dramatic bent and was restless and searching, never satisfied that he had adequately achieved his goals. He was not at his best in dealing with complex problems, and his solutions tended to be oversimplified.
Talbot's friends characterized him as a kind and spiritual man.
