author
Marian Hurd McNeely
1877–1930
Best known for the Newbery Honor book The Jumping-Off Place, this American writer turned her own prairie experiences into stories for young readers. Her work has a warm, adventurous feel rooted in real life on the early South Dakota frontier.
2 Audiobooks
When she came home from college
by Marian Hurd McNeely, Jean Bingham Wilson
Miss Billy : A neighborhood story
by Edith Keeley Stokely, Marian Hurd McNeely
About the author
Born in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1877, Marian Hurd McNeely became known as an American author of children's books. Reliable sources agree that her best-known work is The Jumping-Off Place (1929), which received a Newbery Honor in 1930.
Before gaining national recognition as a novelist, she wrote a newspaper column for the Telegraph Herald in the early 1900s. Sources also connect her writing closely to her own life, especially her time homesteading in what is now Tripp County, South Dakota, on the Rosebud area.
That firsthand experience gave The Jumping-Off Place its vivid prairie setting and sense of everyday adventure. McNeely died in 1930, but her books still stand out for bringing frontier life to young readers in a way that feels personal and lived-in.