Father Francis J Finn (1859-1928) was an American Jesuit priest who wrote a series of 27 popular novels for young people, with each story conveying an important moral precept. According to the American Catholic Who's Who Fr. Finn is "universally acknoledged the foremost Catholic writer of fiction for young people". His first book Tom Playfair, or Making a Start was published in 1890 and this work appeared in 1916.