Morley, Christopher (Darlington) 1890-1957

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MORLEY, Christopher (Darlington) 1890-1957

PERSONAL: Born May 5, 1890, in Bryn Mawr, PA; died March 28, 1957; married Helen Booth Fairchild, 1914; children: Christopher, Jr., Louise, Helen, Blythe. Education: Haverford College, B.A., 1910; attended New College, Oxford, 1910-13.

CAREER: Doubleday, Page, staff member, 1913-17; journalist for Ladies' Home Journal, 1917-18, Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, 1918-20, and New York Evening Post, 1920-23; Saturday Review of Literature, founder and columnist, 1924-41.

MEMBER: American Academy, Baker Street Irregulars (founder), Book of the Month Club (member, editorial board).

AWARDS, HONORS: Honorary D. Litt., Haverford College, 1933.

WRITINGS:

The Eighth Sin, Blackwell (Oxford, England), 1912.

Parnassus on Wheels, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1917.

Songs for a Little House, Doran (New York, NY), 1917.

Shandygaff, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1918.

The Rocking Horse, Doran (New York, NY), 1919.

The Haunted Bookshop, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1919.

(With Bart Haley) In the Sweet Dry and Dry, Boni & Liveright (New York, NY), 1919.

Mince Pie, Doran (New York, NY), 1919.

Travels in Philadelphia, McKay (Philadelphia, PA), 1920.

Kathleen, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1920.

Hide and Seek, Doran (New York, NY), 1920.

Pipefuls, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1920.

Tales from a Rolltop Desk, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1921.

Chimneysmoke, Doran (New York, NY), 1921.

Plum Pudding, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1922.

Translations from the Chinese, Doran (New York, NY), 1922, enlarged edition, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1927.

Where the Blue Begins, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1922.

The Powder of Sympathy, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1923.

Parsons' Pleasure, Doran (New York, NY), 1923.

Inward Ho! Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1923.

Conrad and the Reporters, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1923.

(With Don Marquis) Pandora Lifts the Lid, Doran (New York, NY), 1924.

One-Act Plays, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1924.

Religio Journalistici, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1924.

Hostages to Fortune, The Haverfordian (Haverford, PA), 1925.

Thunder on the Left, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1925.

The Romany Stain, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1926.

Good Theatre, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1926.

The Arrow, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1927, enlarged as The Arrow and Two Other Stories, Heinemann (Portsmouth, NH), 1927.

Pleased to Meet You, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1927.

I Know a Secret, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1927.

Toulemonde, Doubleday, Doran (New York, NY), 1928.

Off the Deep End, Doubleday, Doran (New York, NY), 1928.

Really, My Dear, Rudge (New York, NY), 1928.

Seacoast of Bohemia, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1929.

(With Cleon Throckmorton, Ogden Nash, and others) Born in a Beer Garden; or, She Troupes to Conquer, Foundry Press/R.C. Rimington (New York, NY), 1930.

Rudolph and Amina; or, The Black Crook, John Day (New York, NY), 1930.

John Mistletoe, Doubleday, Doran (New York, NY), 1931.

Swiss Family Manhattan, Doubleday, Doran (New York, NY), 1932.

Ex Libris Carissimis, University of Pennsylvania Press (Philadelphia, PA), 1932.

Human Being, Doubleday, Doran (New York, NY), 1932.

Mandarin in Manhattan: Further Translations from the Chinese, Doubleday, Doran (New York, NY), 1933.

Shakespeare and Hawaii, Doubleday, Doran (New York, NY), 1933.

Internal Revenue, Doubleday, Doran (New York, NY), 1933.

Hasta la Vista: A Postcard from Peru, Doubleday, Doran (New York, NY), 1935.

Christopher Morley's Briefcase, Lippincott (Hagerstown, MD), 1936.

Streamlines, Doubleday, Doran (New York, NY), 1936.

The Trojan Horse, Lippincott (Hagerstown, MD), 1937.

History of an Autumn, Lippincott (Hagerstown, MD), 1938.

Letters of Askance, Lippincott (Hagerstown, MD), 1939.

Kitty Foyle, Lippincott (Hagerstown, MD), 1939.

The Trojan Horse (play; adapted from the novel), Random House (New York, NY), 1941. Thorofare, Harcourt, Brace (New York, NY), 1942. The Middle Kingdom: Poems, 1929-1944, Harcourt, Brace (San Diego, CA), 1944.

Spirit Level, and Other Poems, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1946.

The Old Mandarin: More Translations from the Chinese, Harcourt, Brace (San Diego, CA), 1947. The Man Who Made Friends with Himself, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1949.

The Ironing Board, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1949.

(With William Rose Benet) Poetry Package, Greenfield (New York, NY), 1950.

The Ballad of New York, New York, and Other Poems, 1930-1950, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1950.

Gentleman's Relish, Norton (New York, NY), 1955.

Bright Cages: Selected Poems and Translations from the Chinese, edited by Jon Bracker, University of Pennsylvania Press (Philadelphia, PA), 1965.

Prefaces without Books: Prefaces and Introductions to Thirty Books, edited by Herman Abromson, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 1976.

other

(Editor) Modern Essays, Harcourt, Brace (New York, NY), 1921.

(Editor) Modern Essays (Second Series), Harcourt, Brace (New York, NY), 1924.

(Editor) The Bowling Green: An Anthology of Verse, Doubleday, Page (Garden City, NJ), 1924.

Also editor of two editions of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.

ADAPTATIONS: Kitty Foyle was adapted as a film starring Ginger Rogers and released in 1940.

SIDELIGHTS: Christopher Morley, an American-born author and editor, wrote more than fifty books, including the popular 1939 novel Kitty Foyle. He was also a founder of the Saturday Review of Literature and an enlarged edition of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.

Morley, the son of English immigrants, published his own paper at age twelve. He attended Haverford College and was a Rhodes Scholar at New College, Oxford. "Best remembered today as a novelist, Morley was also a poet and essayist of note," Mark I. Wallach wrote in Dictionary of Literary Biography. Morley was an editor and columnist for Saturday Review and also wrote columns for the New York Evening Post.

Kitty Foyle, which became a bestseller, features a working-class girl from Philadelphia, narrating her life history and coping with romantic conflicts. Central to the story is protagonist Kitty's affair with the affluent Wyn Strafford. Critics heatedly debated Morley's sexual sensationalism. Kitty Foyle became a movie in 1940, winning five Academy Awards, including best picture and best actress for its star, Ginger Rogers.