Edith Summers Kelley

Edith Summers Kelley, born on April twenty-eighth, eighteen eighty-four in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was a talented novelist and writer whose literary contributions are often overshadowed by her personal life. Raised by Scottish immigrants, she pursued her education at the University of Toronto before embarking on a journey that would take her to the vibrant artistic community of Greenwich Village in the United States.

In Greenwich Village, Kelley crossed paths with notable figures such as Upton Sinclair, who offered her a position at Helicon Home Colony. It was here that she also met Sinclair Lewis, with whom she became engaged for two years. However, her heart led her to marry Allan Updegraff, a poet and novelist, with whom she had two children. To support her family, Kelley taught night school, showcasing her resilience and dedication.

After her marriage to Updegraff ended in divorce, Kelley found companionship with Fred Kelley, an artist. Their life together on a tobacco farm in Scott County, Kentucky, inspired her most recognized work, the novel Weeds, published in nineteen twenty-three. Although the book received some positive reviews, it did not achieve commercial success. Kelley's literary journey continued with her second novel, The Devil's Hand, which remained unfinished during her lifetime and was not published until nineteen seventy-four.