Frederick and Maria Shrady Papers

Frederick Charles Shrady, the well-known sculptor, was born in East View, New York on October 22, 1907, the son of Henry Merwin Shrady, the sculptor of the Grant Memorial in Washington, D.C. Like his father, Shrady had no formal training in sculpture, but he had been a successful painter before World War II, studying at Oxford and Paris. Because of his fluency in French, he was inducted into the foreign service and was finally stationed in the Bavarian countryside, where he met his wife, Maria Louise Likar-Waltersdorff. They married in July, 1946. After the war, Frederick Shrady resumed his career as an artist, only this time as a sculptor instead of a painter. Shrady is perhaps best known for his religiously inspired sculpture, including Peter the Fisherman at Fordham University and several pieces at the Vatican. Frederick Shrady died on January 20, 1990.

Maria L. Shrady was born in Austria on March 9, 1924, the daughter of Theodor and Louise (von Peter) Likar-Waltersdorff, and was educated at public and private schools in Vienna. During the war she fled Vienna to her family's country home in the Alps, where she met Frederick Shrady while working as an interpreter for the American Army Fine Arts and Monuments Department. In July, 1946 she married Frederick Shrady and the two soon moved to the United States. Maria Shrady has written several books, the first being 'Come, Southwind' in 1957 with an introduction by Martin C. D'Arcy, S.J. In 1961 she won the Christopher Book Award for 'In the Spirit of Wonder.' Among her other works are 'Moments of Insight' and 'The Mother Teresa Story,' and translations of 'Johannes Tauler: Sermons' and 'Angelus Silesius: The Cherubinic Wanderer.' Maria Shrady lives in Connecticut.