Sophie Kerr
Sophie Kerr (1880-1965) was a prolific writer of the early 20th century whose stories about smart, ambitious women mirrored her own evolution from small-town girl to successful career woman. At a time when few women were financially self-sufficient, Kerr made her way from Maryland’s Eastern Shore to New York City, where she supported herself as a magazine editor and a writer of more than 500 short stories, 23 novels, several poems and a play that ran on Broadway. Her bequest to Washington College on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in 1965 stipulated that the proceeds of the $578,000 endowment be used to fund an annual literary prize and to support literary events and scholarships at the college. Since 1968, the college in Chestertown has awarded more than $1.4 million in prize money to promising young writers and has enabled Washington College to bring a succession of the nation’s literary luminaries to the small liberal arts college located just 30 miles from where she grew up. The childhood home of Sophie Kerr, a circa 1860 farmhouse on the corner of 5th and Kerr Avenues in Denton, Maryland, still stands. She specifically describes the house in her short story, “Coming Home for Christmas.”