Arthur Meeker Jr. (November 3, 1902 – October 22, 1971) was an American novelist and journalist.
Early life
Meeker was born in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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to a prominent, wealthy family on November 3, 1902. He had three sisters. His father retired from his position as an executive with Armour & Co. in 1928 and died in 1946. His mother Grace Murray Meeker died in 1948. The family lived on Prairie Avenue and also owned Arcady Farm near Lake Forest. Meeker studied play-writing at
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
and
Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...
, but left without graduating.
Career
He wrote society and travel articles for the '' Chicago American'', the ''
Chicago Daily News
The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.
History
The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty ...
'', and the '' Chicago Herald''. He achieved critical acclaim as the author of several historical novels, notably ''The Ivory Mischief'', which was a Book of the Month Club selection. ''Time'' said "It seems another of those long (840-page), thickly upholstered Jumbos of period fiction.... But unlike most books of the type, its re-creation is solid, convincing and intimate, its characterizations are shrewd, its style adult, and even the upholstery is interesting." He wrote two novels set in contemporary Chicago, ''The Far Away Music'' and ''Prairie Avenue'', which the ''New York Times'' called a "light and colorful entertainment."
At the start of his career as a novelist, one report of literary events said:''New York Times'' "Books and Authors," February 17, 1929 accessed September 2, 2011. Queen
Marie of Romania
Marie (born Princess Marie Alexandra Victoria of Edinburgh; 29 October 1875 – 18 July 1938) was the last Queen of Romania as the wife of King Ferdinand I.
Marie was born into the British royal family. Her parents were Prince Alfred, D ...
Potter Palmer
Potter Palmer (May 20, 1826 – May 4, 1902) was an American businessman who was responsible for much of the development of State Street in Chicago. Born in Albany County, New York,Ward McAllister was the self-appointed arbiter of New York society from the 1860s to the early 1890s.
Meeker spent part of each year in Europe, became fluent in French, and purchased a chalet in Switzerland on the Bürgenstock above Lucerne. He often accompanied the Chicago socialite-journalist
Fanny Butcher
Fanny Butcher ( Fanny Amanda Butcher; September 13, 1888 – May 11, 1987) was a long time writer and literary critic for the ''Chicago Tribune'' newspaper.
Personal life
Butcher was born on September 13, 1888, in Fredonia, Kansas, to Levi Oliv ...
and her husband on tours of Europe. He gave up his Chicago home in 1951 for an apartment at 4
Gramercy Park
Gramercy ParkSometimes misspelled as Grammercy () is the name of both a small, fenced-in private park and the surrounding neighborhood that is referred to also as Gramercy, in the New York City borough of Manhattan in New York, United States.
T ...
in New York City. Meeker served as president of the
Society of Midland Authors
The Society of Midland Authors is an association of published authors from twelve American states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
According to its constit ...
John Clubbe
John Clubbe (17031773) was an English cleric and satirical writer.
Life
The son of the Rev. George Clubbe, rector of Whatfield, Suffolk, he was born in or about 1703. He matriculated as a sizar of King's College, Cambridge in 1722, and took the ...
, ''Byron, Sully, and the Power of Portraiture'' (Ashgate Publishing, 2005), 26-31 and with Butcher co-founded the Chicago chapter of
P.E.N.
PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internatio ...
about 1931, serving initially as its secretary.
Personal life
Letters he wrote to his family from Europe in the 1930s suggest he was homosexual.
Newberry Library
The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities and located on Washington Square in Chicago, Illinois. It has been free and open to the public since 1887. Its collections encompass a variety of topics rela ...
Arthur Meeker, Jr. Papers accessed September 2, 2011. Correspondence indicates he supported a young man named Allen. He had a thirty-year relationship with Robert Molnar, with whom he lived from at least 1940 until Meeker's death in their New York City home on October 22, 1971. Meeker named Molnar his heir.
Works
Novels:
*''American Beauty'' (Covici-Friede, 1929)
*''Strange Capers'' (Covici-Friede, 1931)
*''Vestal Virgin'' (NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons 1934)
*''Sacrifice to the Graces'' (NY: D. Appleton-Century, 1937)
*''The Ivory Mischief'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1942)
*''The Far Away Music'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1945)
*''Prairie Avenue'' (NY: Knopf, 1949)
*''The Silver Plume'' (NY: Knopf, 1952)
Memoir:
*''Chicago, With Love: A Polite and Personal History'' (NY: Knopf, 1955)''New York Times'' accessed September 2, 2011
Newberry Library
The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities and located on Washington Square in Chicago, Illinois. It has been free and open to the public since 1887. Its collections encompass a variety of topics rela ...