author

Edith Keeley Stokely

Best known as the co-author of the 1905 novel Miss Billy, this Iowa-connected writer left behind a small but intriguing footprint in early twentieth-century American fiction. Her work centers on neighborhood life, family feeling, and the everyday dramas that make a community come alive.

1 Audiobook

Miss Billy: A Neighborhood Story

Miss Billy: A Neighborhood Story

by Edith Keeley Stokely, Marian Kent Hurd

About the author

Edith Keeley Stokely was an American author associated with Iowa. A 1918 statewide bibliography, Iowa Authors and Their Works, included writers connected to Iowa, and Project Gutenberg lists her under the name Edith Keeley Stokely.

She is best known for Miss Billy: A Neighborhood Story, published in Boston by Lothrop Publishing Company in 1905 and written with Marian Kent Hurd. The novel was later preserved by Project Gutenberg, which has helped keep her work available to modern readers.

Reliable biographical detail about her life appears to be scarce in widely accessible literary sources, so much of her personal story remains hard to confirm. What is clear is that her name survives through Miss Billy and through Iowa bibliographic records that place her among the state's early authors.