Marian Hurd McNeely

Marian Kent Hurd McNeely (July 26, 1877 – December 8, 1930) was an American children's book author. Her work Jumping-Off Place received a Newbery Honor in 1930.

Biography

Marian Kent Hurd was born in Dubuque, Iowa in 1877. She worked for a newspaper around the turn of the century, writing a column from 1903 to 1906. She then left for Italy for a year. She married Lee McNeely on May 4, 1910. They had four children.

For two years, they homesteaded at Rosebud Indian Reservation, which became the inspiration for The Jumping-Off Place.^[1]

Apart from her books, McNeely wrote short stories and poems which appeared in publications such as St. Nicholas Magazine, Literary Digest, Ladies' Home Journal and the Saturday Review of Literature. A Ballade of Losers, was a humorous poem about being an also-ran for the Newbery Medal.

She was killed on December 8, 1930 when she was hit by a car while crossing a street.^[2]

Works

• 1905: Miss Billy
• 1909: When she came home from college
• 1928: Rusty Ruston: A story for brothers and sisters
• 1929: The Jumping-Off Place
• 1931: Winning Out
• 1932: The way to glory and other stories

References

1. Lamberton Becker, May (1932). Under Twenty. Harcourt, Brace & World. p. 384. ISBN 978-1-4191-6535-1. Retrieved 29 March 2010.
2. Wall, Joseph Frazier; Federal Writers Project (1986). The WPA Guide to 1930s Iowa. University of Iowa Press. p. 581. ISBN 978-1-58729-570-6. Retrieved 29 March 2010.

External links

• South Dakota Historyarticle on McNeely, with photograph
• Marian Hurd McNeely at Library of Congress, with 6 library catalog records (including 1 "from old catalog")