Kildares of Storm

Eleanor Mercein Kelly (1880-1968) was born into a prominent and wealthy family of Scottish French ancestry. After a childhood in Milwaukee, she graduated with honours in 1898 from the Georgetown Convent of the Visitation in Washington, D.C. Kelly's first novel, Toya the Unlike (1913), was not well received by the critics, but she followed this failure with a trilogy of novels depicting life in Kentucky: Kildares of Storm (1916), Why Joan? (1918), and The Mansion House (1923). Her other works include: Sea Change (1931), Sounding Harbors (1935), Mixed Company (1936) and Proud Castle (1951).