LoginFebruary 2024 Notable Maryland Author - Sophie Kerr - Remarkable "Plucky" Heroine From the Eastern Shore Author
Author: Sophie Kerr
Genre: Women's Fiction - Short Stories
“If peace only had the music and pageantry of war, there'd be no wars.” Sophie Kerr
Sophie Kerr, born August 23, 1880 on the Eastern Shore in Denton, Maryland, ended up in New York City by 1920 where she supported herself as a magazine editor and a writer. She died in 1965 at age 84 and for 45 years had lived in a brownstone residence at 115 East 38th Street. There she wrote over 500 short stories, 23 novels, several poems, a play that ran on Broadway, and held court for her friends in publishing and theater.
Sophie Kerr graduated from Denton High School in 1895, earned a bachelor's degree from Hood College, a master's degree from the University of Vermont then married and divorced John DeLoss Underwood. Kerr went into journalism as the women’s page editor at the Chronicle Telegraph and the Pittsburgh Gazette. In New York, she became managing editor of The Woman's Home Companion. She began to write for the Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s Saturday Review of Literature and McCalls while there.
Kerr’s stories dealt with class and gender issues at work in the first half of the 20th century. The Baltimore City Newspaper described her work this way: “Kerr wrote stories about plucky heroines, young women who rose to the challenge and went for the gusto. They had big dreams and lots of charm and tons of blond curls. For the most part, they were smart and unassuming and hopelessly, wonderfully, kind, but they had ambition. Even her seemingly vapid heroines had hearts of gold and wills of iron hidden under all their finery.”
Kerr was as "plucky" as her heroines, without the blond curls. She went from an Eastern Shore girl to a wildly successful, writing-career woman at a time when few women were financially self-sufficient. She left most of her fortune to Washington College on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. This literary endowment funded literary events and scholarships and created the “nation’s largest undergraduate literary prize,” even larger than the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and National Book Critics Circle.
The childhood home of Sophie Kerr, a circa 1860 farmhouse on the corner of 5th and Kerr Avenues in Denton, Maryland, still stands.
Genre: Women's Fiction – Short Stories – Fiction with women as the central characters overcoming obstacles to success and independence.
Sample Reading List: The Golden Block, The See-Saw, Painted Meadows, One Thing is Certain, Girl Into Woman, Stay Out of My Life, Miss J. Looks On, There's Only One, Fine to Look At
Fun With Words - Maryland Writers’ Association (MWA) invites you to have fun writing fiction like Sophie Kerr. Using up to 100 words, place a "plucky" heroine in a working environment confronted by gender or class issues. Title your work and submit to: https://marylandwriters.org/Notable_Maryland_Authors by the 22nd of the month to receive an MWA Fun With Words submission certificate. Responses will be published as comments to this article.
The MWA is a 31-year-old state-wide association (501c3) dedicated to encouraging and mentoring Maryland writers, poets, playwrights, and authors. Go to www.MarylandWriters.org for more info.
Eric Waldow
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Lawrence McGuire
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Beth Smith
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Viola Robinson-Boone
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Eleanor O'Mara
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Jon Hillbilly Anthology Ketzner
Feb. 28, 2024THE REF _ “Ouch, that had to hurt.” Sarah flinched, blew the play dead. Once the players untangled, Brady loomed over Sarah and spit-screamed at her. “Hey, Ponytail!! You’re supposed to protect my butt out there. That was g-d roughing.” Sarah gazed up at the famous, now furious, face. “Those O-line meat mountains are supposed to protect your precious caboose, not me. That was a clean hit, Superstar. Get back to your huddle. And next time you call me ‘Ponytail’ it’s fifteen for unsportsmanlike. Got it?” Tom Brady grinned, winked at Sarah, and hustled back to give the meat mountains hell for not blocking.
Christine Hickey
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Cindy Herndon
Feb. 28, 2024To Victoria Go the Spoils - Victoria piloted her crab boat from Pasadena down the Bay to Kent Island. When the early storm came up, she took shelter behind the island, secured her boat, and walked to the local marina. Three men at the bar scoffed at her and commented on how a woman shouldn’t be crabbing in a storm. She ignored them and called a buyer. “I got a bushel of males before the storm broke.” She turned with the phone in her hand, “You fellows want to sell your crabs? He’ll take ‘em all.” The red-faced men shook their heads and mumbled, “Didn’t get any.”
Gary Gunnulfsen
Feb. 28, 2024Home on the Range - His head bloodied and right leg broken just above the ankle. The stampede had subsided. I raced to Buck’s aid, though he was the one resistant to me driving herd. I threw him on his horse and found the doc in Cowpoke Crossing. Buck looked at me in a thankful, apologetic way. He knew I could punch out cows or cowboys. I could out-ride, out-rope, and out-shoot most drivers. Buck needed a hand and gave me a chance, sure I would quit. It gets lonely out here, just me and my pride.
Leslie Dickey
Feb. 28, 2024Pumping Iron-y - I don’t need steroids, estrogen supplements, or any other booster. I’ve worked years, not just on my body but also on my style and technique. It hasn’t been easy, but well worth the effort. I am amphibious, a creature comfortable on land and in the water. From my earliest days, I was taught that biology is a constant. Hanging out or all tucked in, we are what we are. But today the politicians chasing votes are wobbling. You can be whatever you choose to be. OK. Ed(wina) might outswim me today. But I’ll kick his candy-ass tomorrow.
Jim Coleman
Feb. 28, 2024Change Coming - She was barely 20, a daughter of immigrants, first female college graduate in her family, when she started teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in a hardscrabble little western Pennsylvania coal mining "patch". It was the 1930's, and some people there had little use for book learning, figuring a boy's future was in the mines or mills, a girl's at home keeping house. But she had persevered, bringing education and a brighter vision for the future to kids in the village. And now…they were going to fire her? For getting married, wanting children of her own? Like hell they were!
Ellen Coffey
Feb. 28, 2024Rising From the Ashes - Ten years ago, she almost died. Sarah’s ex-husband had broken into her apartment and shot her three times, leaving her to die. She was lucky. Her small Texas town was near a major regional hospital. They were able to save her life. She could have shut down, become reclusive. Instead, she chose to open a shelter for battered women in her community. Sarah learned that states with lax gun control laws have a higher rate of death in domestic abuse cases. She’s become an important voice advocating for abused women and for stricter gun control laws in Texas.
Doris Brady
Feb. 28, 2024Marcy’s Town - Marcy’s dad, a CMU professor, walked in the front door. “Marcy? I have news.” “Upstairs, Dad. Down in a minute.” Marcy, a high school senior, was already doing an internship in architecture and was enrolled in engineering at CMU. She had been designing buildings forever. “CMU is having a contest for the best city plan. You should enter.” “Oh, Dad, judges always overlook my entries as soon as they see I’m a girl. Why bother?” “That’s my news. All entries will be anonymous! You’ve always had the most comprehensive designs I’ve ever seen.” Marcy entered and won Best Town Design!
Steve Baker
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