Marie Louise Malloy, more commonly known as Josh Wink was born in Baltimore in the year of 1858. She was she daughter of John and Frances (Sollers) Malloy. She is of Irish decent, her grandparents emigrated to America in the early 1800’s. Louise as a young girl always dreamed of a career in literature and attended school at the convent of the Visitation. In December of 1889 Malloy’s dream came true when she was offered a job at the Baltimore American.
Malloy… or should I say “Wink” was a columnist for the Baltimore American for well over 20 years. Louise “specialized in women’s interests, did editorial and feature work, and was a dramatic editor.” She was the first newspaperwoman in Maryland. She wrote short stories, essays, dramas, and poems that usually included a comedic edge. Some of the columns Malloy wrote consistently for the Baltimore American that I have come across were titled “Laughs and The World Laughs with you” and “Notes and Notions”. Here she included multiple lighthearted poems with deeper underlying meanings. I believe that these larger meanings could only be seen by intelligent people reading deeper into the poems, to the average joe these works were just good for a laugh. I mean that’s what a daily humor column is for right?
The way to a woman’s heart may be slightly strenuous, but the road coming from it is the hardest to travel.”
Along with all these amazing accomplishments Malloy’s “efforts led to the establishment of Juvenile Court in Baltimore and also resulted in improvements in the Fire Department.” I do not know much about this information so I am still trying to unearth more facts.
I thoroughly enjoy reading her work. I appreciate comedy and her stuff let me tell you is genuinely “lol” worthy. She is super relatable and I always think it’s ironic that topics she speaks of in her column relate so much to life today. I mean you really could place some of her works in newspapers today and get good feedback from readers. She was popular back then and I understand all of the hype.