Clark McMeekin
Clark McMeekin was the joint pseudonym of authors Dorothy (Park) Clark (September 14, 1899 – June 23, 1983) and Isabel (McLennan) McMeekin (November 19, 1895 – September 4, 1973). They are known for a series of popular historical novels set in the state of Kentucky during the 19th century.
Background on authors
[edit]Clark was born Dorothy Park in Osceola, Iowa, the daughter of William Park and Eugenia (Dowden) Park.[1] She was educated at Randolph-Macon Women's College and Columbia University.[1] She married Edward Clark in 1923 and they had two daughters.[1] She died in Louisville, Kentucky.[1]
McMeekin was born Isabel McLennan in Louisville to Alexander McLennan and Rosa (Harbison) McLennan.[1] She was educated at Westover School and the University of Chicago.[1] In 1919, she worked at the Pine Mountain Settlement School, an experience that produced later echoes in her novels.[2] In 1921 she married Samuel H. McMeekin, who commanded an American Legion post in Louisville, and they had three children.[1][2] She died in Louisville.[1]
Writing career
[edit]Clark and McMeekin produced an assortment of mysteries, children's books, short stories, and poetry under their own names.[1] McMeekin's 1942 book Journey Cake received an award from the Julia Ellsworth Ford Foundation.[2] They are best known, however, for the dozen historical novels that they co-wrote between 1940 and 1961.[1] Set in 19th century Kentucky, these books cross historical romance with action fiction, and their casts of characters mingle fictional with real historical personages.[1] Several are set during the Civil War.[1]
Old Kentucky Country (1957) was a nonfiction work commissioned by Erskine Caldwell for the American Folkways series.[3]
Books
[edit]- Show Me a Land (1940)
- Reckon with the River (1941)
- Welcome Soldier! (1942)
- Red Raskall (1943)
- Show Me a Land (1940)
- Black Moon (1945)
- Gaudy's Ladies (1948)
- City of the Flags (1950)
- Room at the Inn (1953)
- Tyrone of Kentucky (1954)
- The October Fox (1956)
- Old Kentucky Country (1957)
- The Fairbrothers (1961)