Edna Kenton (March 17, 1876 – February 28, 1954) was an American writer and literary critic. Kenton is best remembered for her 1928 work ''The Book of Earths,'' which collected various unusual and controversial theories about a hollow earth,

Atlantis Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and '' Critias'', wherein it represents the antagonist naval power that b ...

, and similar matters.

Early life and education

Edna Baldwin Kenton was born in

Springfield, Missouri Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Springfield metropolitan area, which had an estimat ...

in 1876. Her father, James Edgar Kenton, was a bookkeeper. She attended

Drury College Drury University, formerly Drury College and originally Springfield College, is a private university in Springfield, Missouri. The university's mission statement describes itself as "church-related". It enrolls about 1,700 undergraduate and grad ...

, as did her brother Maurice and her sister Mabel, and graduated from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1897. She worked in Chicago as a young woman, where she knew

Theodore Dreiser Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...

Career

Kenton's first novel, ''What Manner of Man'' (1903), was published while she was still in her twenties. A second, ''Clem'', followed in 1907. Later she concentrated on essays and short stories, as a contributor to ''Harper's Magazine'', ''Century Magazine'', ''Virginia Quarterly Review'', and other periodicals. She also served on the advisory board of ''The Seven Arts'', a short-lived but influential literary magazine. Kenton wrote some important criticism of

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

, especially her essay "Henry James to the Ruminant Reader" (1924), which introduced a novel reading of ''

The Turn of the Screw ''The Turn of the Screw'' is an 1898 horror novella by Henry James which first appeared in serial format in '' Collier's Weekly'' (January 27 – April 16, 1898). In October 1898, it was collected in ''The Two Magics'', published by Macmil ...

''. Her last publication was an edited collection of Henry James stories. She is credited with writing the screenplay for the silent film ''Bondage'' (1917), directed by

Ida May Park Ida May Park (December 28, 1879 – June 13, 1954) was an American screenwriter and film director of the silent era, in the early 20th century. She wrote for more than 50 films between 1914 and 1930, and directed 14 films between 1917 and 192 ...

and starring

Dorothy Phillips Dorothy Phillips (born Dorothy Gwendolyn Strible, October 30, 1889 – March 1, 1980) was an American stage and film actress. She is known for her emotional performances in melodramas, having played a number of "brow beaten" women on screen, bu ...

. Kenton was an active suffragist and a charter member of Heterodoxy, a feminist debating club based in Greenwich Village. She served on the executive board of the Provincetown Players, led by fellow Heterodites Eleanor Fitzgerald and Susan Glaspell, and wrote a history of the company, published many years later. She also wrote a biography of her kinsman, frontiersman Simon Kenton, and several books based on the letters of Jesuit missionaries in North America. But it was ''The Book of Earths'' (1928), her collection of esoteric theories about a hollow earth, Atlantis, ancient maps, and similar topics, that found the most enthusiastic and lasting readership, and continues in print.

Personal life

Edna Kenton died in 1954, age 77; author

Leon Edel Joseph Leon Edel (9 September 1907 – 5 September 1997) was an American/Canadian literary critic and biographer. He was the elder brother of North American philosopher Abraham Edel. The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' calls Edel "the foremos ...

eulogized her in the ''New York Times''. A small collection of her papers is at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

.Edna Kenton Correspondence, 1903-1954
Columbia University Libraries, MS0704.

References

External links

Finding aid to Edna Kenton correspondence at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.A photograph of Edna Kenton
taken by Carl Van Vechten in 1938; from the Van Vechten papers at Yale University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kenton, Edna 1876 births 1954 deaths 20th-century American writers American suffragists University of Michigan alumni 20th-century American women writers