Frank Sheed (1897-1982) was born in Australia to a Presbyterian father and a Catholic mother. Reared a Protestant, at the age of 16 he was received into the Catholic Church. He practiced law but turned to writing Catholic apologetics and publishing Catholic authors. Much of his skill as an apologist was acquired by encountering passersby atop his soap box in London’s Hyde Park. In later years he became the most prominent lay Catholic theologian of his day. He married a Catholic writer, Masie Ward, author of the first biography of G.K. Chesterton. Together they established the publishing house of Sheed
