Eric P. (Eric Philbrook) Kelly

Born in Amesbury, Massachusetts, in 1884, Eric Philbrook Kelly grew up to become a journalist, teacher, and author of children's books. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1906, worked in journalism for about a decade, and later returned to Dartmouth as a professor of English.

A turning point in his life came after World War I, when he worked with Polish soldiers in France and then spent time in Poland. He later lectured briefly at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and that experience helped inspire The Trumpeter of Krakow. The novel won the 1929 Newbery Medal and remains the book he is most remembered for.

Kelly wrote with a gift for making distant places and earlier times feel immediate to young readers. Alongside his writing career, he stayed connected to academic life, and his work reflects both a storyteller's imagination and a teacher's love of history and culture.