Eric P. Kelly

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Eric P. Kelly
Born(1884-03-16)March 16, 1884
Amesbury, Massachusetts
DiedJanuary 3, 1960(1960-01-03) (aged 75)
OccupationJournalist, teacher
NationalityAmerican
Period20th century
GenreJuvenile fiction

Eric Philbrook Kelly (March 16, 1884 – January 3, 1960) was an

children's books. He was a professor of English at Dartmouth College and briefly a lecturer at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He won the 1929 Newbery Medal recognizing his first published book, The Trumpeter of Krakow, as the preceding year's most distinguished contribution to American children's literature.[1]

Life

Kelly was born in 1884 in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Kelly graduated Dartmouth College in 1906 (BA). As a student, Kelly was a member of the French club and one of the first members of The Pukwana Club, which would eventually transition into the Delta Beta chapter of the Sigma Nu fraternity.[2]

After "ten colorless, uneventful, and discouraging years working on newspapers", Kelly volunteered in 1918 to work with the welfare organisation Les Foyers du Soldat in Quentin, France. He found himself in charge of athletics and entertainment for 2,000 Polish soldiers in Haller's Army. In May 1919, Kelly was shipped across Germany to the newly recognised state of Poland in a closed boxcar along with the Polish troops. His new base was established in the old Napoleonic fortress of Modlin, near Warsaw. He wrote to his mother that "Warsaw is a beautiful city, reminds me in some ways of Denver."[citation needed]

During the 1919–1920

Bolshevik
propaganda. Six months later, he was hired by his alma mater, Dartmouth College, where he would teach for 33 years. In 1924, he married his wife Katherine but, in spite of his fame as a children’s author, did not have any children of his own.

1925–1926 Kelly went to the Jagiellonian University in Kraków as the first American exchange scholar sent to Poland by the Kosciuszko Foundation. Kelly served as an instructor of American Literature and Institutions in the Department of English Philology under Prof. Roman Dybowski.

On 4 July 1926, Kelly ceremonially placed a vase filled with earth from

hejnał trumpeter shot by a Tartar
arrow.

Kelly spent 1930 as a researcher in Vilnius and 1931 in Lviv (both in Polish hands at that time). These inspired further Polish-themed children’s books: The Blacksmith of Vilno and The Golden Star of Halicz. His 1932 book, The Christmas Nightingale, was adapted as a play in 1935.

In 1943–1945, Kelly worked for the

US State Department taking care of Polish refugees in León, Guanajuato, Mexico.[1]

Kelly was chairman of the

Chebeague Island, Maine, and Ojo Caliente, New Mexico.[1]

Books

  • The Trumpeter of Krakow (1929)
  • The Blacksmith of Vilno (1930)
  • The Golden Star of Halicz (1931)
  • Christmas Nightingale (1932)
  • The Girl Who Would be Queen (1934)
  • Three Sides of Angiochook (1935)
  • Treasure Mountain (1937)
  • At the Sign of the Golden Compass (1938)
  • On the Staked Plain (1940)
  • From Star to Star (1940)
  • In Clean Hay (1940)
  • Land of the Polish People (1943)
  • The Hand in the Picture (1947)
  • The Amazing Story of David Ingram (1949)
  • Polish Legends and Tales (1971)

References

  1. ^ a b c Newbery Medal Books: 1922–1955, eds. Bertha Mahony Miller, Elinor Whitney Field, Horn Book, 1955, LOC 55-13968, pp. 67–69.
  2. OCLC 2745082.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )

Further reading

  • "In Memoriam, Eric Philbrook Kelly '06", Dartmouth Alumni Magazine 2/1960
  • Kelly, Eric P. "Papers, 1928–1964", archive in the collection of Dartmouth Library
  • Kelly, Eric P. "Poland’s Great Refusal to Become a Bridge for Bolshevist Invasion of the Western World", Philadelphia Public Ledger, 28 April 1921
  • Mizwa, Stephen (ed.) "1956 K.F. Medal of Recognition Awarded to Professor Eric P. Kelly", Kosciuszko Foundation Monthly Newsletter, September 1956

External links
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