Morley was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. His father, Frank Morley, was a mathematics professor at Haverford College; his mother, Lilian Janet Bird, was a violinist who provided Christopher with much of his later love for literature and poetry. "I warn you," said the funny-looking little man with the red beard, "I?m here to sell this caravan of culture, and by the bones of Swinburne I think your brother's the man to buy it." (Jacketless hardcover intended for the library trade.)

Author Biography

Christopher Morley (1890 - 1957) was an American journalist, novelist, essayist and poet. He also produced stage productions for a few years and gave college lectures. Morley began writing while still in college. He edited The Haverfordian and contributed articles to that college publication. He provided scripts for and acted in the college's drama program. In Oxford a volume of his poems, The Eighth Sin (1912), was published. After graduating from Oxford, Morley began his literary career at Doubleday, working as publicist and publisher's reader. In 1917 he got his start as an editor for Ladies' Home Journal (1917-1918), then as a newspaper reporter and newspaper columnist in Philadelphia for the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger. Morley's first novel, Parnassus on Wheels, appeared in 1917. The protagonist, traveling bookseller Roger Mifflin, appeared again in his second novel, The Haunted Bookshop in 1919. In 1920 Morley returned to New York City to write a column (The Bowling Green) for the New York Evening Post. Author of more than 100 novels, books of essays and volumes of poetry, Morley is probably best known for his 1939 novel Kitty Foyle, which was made into an Academy Award-winning movie. Another well-known work is Thunder on the Left (1925).