Sophie Kerr - (1880-1965)
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I. Biography
Sophie Kerr was born August 23, 1880 to Amanda and Jonathan William Kerr on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She was born in the small town of Denton where she grew up. She went to the public schools of the town and then later attended Hood College on the Eastern Shore. She always was interested in writing. She loved to read and write literature and when she was about eighteen she decided she was going to be a writer. After she graduated from Hood a friend of her father's suggested that she take graduate courses at the University of Vermont and so that is what she did. She was taught in literature by Professor Samuel Emerson and graduated in 1901 with a Master's Degree.
Kerr began to write books professionally in 1904. She says as an explanation to that, "Writing fever hit me." That same year she married a man named John Underwood and for four years wrote under the name Sophie Kerr Underwood until John and her got divorced in 1908. She then dropped her husband's last name. While she and her husband were married they lived in New England, but afterwards she moved to Manhattan and wrote there. She also had a house in Denton until 1946 that she spent time at occasionally.
Sophie Kerr had hobbies that included reading fiction, biographies and autobiographies, collecting silver, and cooking. She was an expert at cooking and wrote articles on cooking and even wrote a cookbook with the help of June Platt called The Best I ever Ate. She was a member of the New York Wine and Food Society. Of her culinary abilities Kerr had this to say: "I can make better gingerbread and better spoon bread and better preserves than anyone in the world-this is not arrogance but the beautiful, exceptional truth."
Kerr was a careful planner who was able to forget her errors and husband her energies. She was a person who did not wait to be inspired. Kerr had not an ounce of patience for people who did not work to their full potential. She says in an interview with Mary Gay Galcott, "An industrious sinner I much prefer to a lazy saint." That probably explains why she wrote so many novels, short stories, and plays.
She loved her childhood days on the Eastern Shore and it shows in her writing. Her novels Painted Meadows, One Thing is Certain, and Mareea-Maria illustrate the beauty of the Eastern Shore.
About fifteen of her stories reflect the pattern of near-disaster leading to a happy resolution, which was the way her life was like in a way. For example, she got divorced from her husband but then recovered to be a famous fiction writer. She wrote mainly romance novels and stories about career problems.
Sophie Kerr lived a relatively long life that was filled with honors and awards which is the type of life that all of us should live.
II. Maryland
Eastern Shore. As it says in the biography that is where Kerr grew up and was born. She says that only people who live on the Shore go to the Shore.
III. Professional Biography
Sophie Kerr had a long and extended writing career that featured novels and short stories and she even wrote plays. She went to Hood College. She went there from about 1895 to 1899 studying literature. She then took graduate classes at the University of Vermont. After she got her Master's Degree, she then started her professional career as editor of the Woman's page of the Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph. Soon, she became the editor of the Sunday supplement of the Pittsburgh Gazette-Times. She spent time there and then started to write romance novels around 1905 and novels about other light fiction topics. These are the type of novels that you would see at grocery stores today. The novels that she wrote include Michael's Girl and Miss J Looks On. She was one of the most famous romance writer of the 20th Century. She mainly wrote novels and short stories and plays. One play was called "They're None of Them Perfect". She wrote about 30 romance novels in her career and all of them were excellent, even for today. She lived in Manhattan, New York most of her life.
The Sound of Petticoats is a book that is a collection of stories was a collection of stories about the Eastern Shore, including the "The Sound of Petticoats" the story. Other stories
that are in that book include "A Prayer to Saint Rita" and "Cupboard Lover". This book is less romantic than the other novels that Sophie Kerr wrote. It does have romantic stories
in it, though, but they are not as romantic as the other novels and short stories that Kerr wrote. Sophie Kerr continued to write until her death in 1965. She didn't have any more well-known works after
The Sound of Petticoats. If you are the type that loves romance novel writers like Danielle Steele, you'll probably like Sophie Kerr because she is best known for writing romance novels.
Kerr also said famous quotes. One she said during World War II is "If peace, ...only had the music and pagentry of wars, there would be no more wars." Another one of her famous
quotes is "The longing to produce great inspirations didn't produce anything but more longing." Kerr was about as popular as romance novel writers like Danielle Steele back
then. Kerr is probably the most famous romance writer of her time. She, like just about all writers, loved to write and loved what she did.
The Sophie Kerr Prize, as I said before is given to the student who excels in the field of literature. Kerr donated 573,000 dollars to Washington College before she died of a heart
attack in 1965. Last year's prize was worth about 35,000 dollars, the largest ever. It is given to the student who is the best literary student at Washington College. It is a very popular
prize at the college. May I mention a superstitious note: whoever has won the prize has been jinxed for the rest of their stay at the college. They have had all sorts of bad luck, so be careful.
It is a distinguished honor to write all sorts of literature all of one's life as Kerr did, to have awards named after you and all sorts of other honors. To get the honorary degrees that she
got for her work like the Doctor of Literature Honorary Degree that she received from the University of Vermont. Kerr paved the way for romance novels of today. May her story
serve as a lesson for all of the people out there who want to change the world to go out and do it, as Kerr did. IV. Literary Works By Kerr Sound of Petticoats, 1948
This essay was submitted by a student of Joe Taylor, a teacher at Perryville High School in Maryland.
"Sound of Petticoats." Sound of Petticoats Sophie Kerr, 1948
"Prayer to Saint Rita." Sound of Petticoats Sophie Kerr, 1948
"Cupboard Lover." Sound of Petticoats Sophie Kerr 1948
"Ugly Face." Sound of Petticoats Sophie Kerr, 1948
Blue Envelope, 1917
The Golden Block, 1918
The See-Saw, 1919
Painted Meadows, 1920
One Thing is Certain, 1922
Mareea-Maria, 1929
Tigers Is Only Cats, 1929
In For a Penny, 1931
Girl Into Woman, 1932
Stay Out of My Life, 1934
Miss J. Looks On, 1935
There's Only One, 1936
Fine to Look At, 1937
Adventure With Women, 1938
Curtain Going Up, 1940
The Beautiful Woman 1941
Michaels's Girls, 1942
Jenny Devlin, 1943.
Love Story Incidental, 1946
Wife's Eye View, 1947
As Tall As Pride, 1949
The Man Who Knew the Date, 1951