author
Margaret West Kinney
1872–1952
Best known as one half of “The Kinneys,” she helped bring dance, history, and fiction to life through vivid illustration and writing. Her work moved easily between books, magazines, and the art world, making her a distinctive creative figure of the early 20th century.
1 Audiobook
The Dance: Its Place in Art and Life
by Troy Kinney, Margaret West Kinney
About the author
Born in Peoria, Illinois, Margaret West Kinney (also listed as Margaret Winifred West Kinney) was an American illustrator, painter, etcher, and author. She is closely associated with the collaborative name “The Kinneys,” used for work she created with her husband, artist and writer Troy Kinney, and she is credited on editions of The Dance: Its Place in Art and Life and other illustrated books.
Sources available here also link her to a long career in illustration and fine art. Illinois Women Artists notes that she was elected to the Society of Illustrators in 1912, and art-reference pages describe her work across portraiture, genre scenes, mural work, and etching. A surviving 1923 passport photograph gives a rare glimpse of the woman behind the byline.
She died in 1952, and her work remains scattered across library collections, public-domain archives, and art databases. That mix of literary, visual, and collaborative work makes her especially interesting for listeners who enjoy authors whose careers stretched well beyond the printed page.