KELLY, Myra

Born 26 August 1875, Dublin, Ireland; died 30 March 1910, Torquay, England

Daughter of James and Annie Morrogh Kelly; married AllanMacNaughton, 1905

Myra Kelly came to New York City with her family when she was a child; they lived on the East Side, where her physician father developed a large practice. Educated first at convent schools, she attended Horace Mann High School and then Teachers College of Columbia University, receiving a diploma in 1899 as a teacher of manual training. Her experience at East-Side Public School 147, where she taught from 1899 to 1901, provided material for her popular stories about "Bailey's Babies."

Kelly's long stream of published stories began with the sentimental "A Christmas Present for a Lady," which she had sent to two magazines, thinking both would reject it. When both accepted it, Kelly had complicated adjustments to make. She told friends later that no manuscript of hers was ever rejected. The story was included in her first book, Little Citizens: The Humours of School Life (1904).

Little Citizens caught the attention of Allan MacNaughton, president of Standard Coach Horse Company, who arranged to meet her. They were married in 1905; their one child, a boy, died in infancy. The MacNaughtons lived briefly at Oldchester Village, Orange Mountain, New Jersey, while working to establish a literary colony there.

In her scant 35 years, the prolific Kelly produced not only three books of East Side stories but popular romantic tales as well. She also wrote essays about educational methods and effects, some of which appeared in collections with her stories. Kelly died from tuberculosis in England, where she had gone in hope of a cure. Her last books were published posthumously.

Little Citizens is a collection of Kelly's earliest stories about the children in Constance Bailey's first-reader class, boys and girls primarily from poor Jewish immigrant families but including the son of the local Irish policeman for contrast and occasional conflict. Kelly wrote that she was not the model for Constance Bailey. "'What I aspired to be and was not' Constance Bailey was. Only her mistakes are mine and her very earnest effort."

The stories were intended as educational, but have the charms of novelty and originality, although verisimilitude suffers in both incidents and dialogue. The humor that tempers the message is usually at the immigrant's expense and is often condescending, but it sometimes touches on the teacher's embarrassment as she realizes the limitations of her knowledge or experience.

Wards of Liberty (1907) contains more stories of Miss Bailey's 58 students. There are disruptive influences like the nine-year-old "Boss" who is running his late father's cellar garment shop. Kelly believed the schools played a crucial role in helping immigrants get along in America, but the Boss' story shows that she recognized the system's limitations. The Boss has previously avoided all schooling and other Americanizing influences, but comes to school when he decides learning to read will bring better-paid work for his shop. Discouraged by the slow pace and unessential busy work, he disappears. His life has no room for childhood activities. He lives in a world the schools could not reach. Although Kelly continues to emphasize the fun, under it rages revolt against conditions among the poor.

After several less critically successful novels, Kelly returned, as her critics hoped she would, to the world of her schoolchildren in Little Aliens (1910). There is still humor and pathos but with a deeper understanding of children and the nature of alienation. "Games in Gardens" shows how immigrants can misinterpret the bits of America that filter into their ghetto world, as the children try to don proper costume for track and field events. Miss Bailey takes her share of the satire for her inadequate communication. Whereas earlier Kelly had saved discussion for her essays, here she explains how natural these misunderstandings are with children "alien to every American custom, and prejudiced by religion and precept against most of them."

Although generally unknown now, Kelly achieved tremendous popular success, publishing frequently in mass-circulation magazines like McClure's. Even President Theodore Roosevelt sent her a letter of appreciation. She exaggerated both characters and incidents, looked for sentiment, and created wry humor always on the verge of pathos, but she was honest in her approach, often touching on serious issues such as the values of Americanization and the clash between immigrant and American traditions. Writing with warmth, sympathy, and as much understanding as she could muster, Kelly did much to acquaint the reading public with the harsh conditions of ghetto life and to suggest that Americans learn to know their immigrants before thoughtlessly attempting to Americanize them. When she left the narrow area of the East Side schools, her stories were less well received and less significant.

Other Works:

The Isle of Dreams (1907). Rosnah (1908). The Golden Season (1909). New Faces (1910). Her Little Young Ladyship (1911).

Bibliography:

Fine, D. M., The City, the Immigrant, and American Fiction (1977). Friedman, L. M., Pilgrims in a New Land (1948). Lieberman, E., The American Short Story: A Study of the Influence of Locality in Its Development (1912).