American Tales of Poland

[kaima]

Why would a fellow named Eric Philbrook Kelly write about Poland? The story is more interesting than I suspected.


Eric Philbrook Kelly (March 16, 1884 – January 3, 1960) was an American journalist, academic and author of children's books. He was a professor of English at Dartmouth College and briefly a lecturer at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He won the 1929 Newbery Medal recognizing his first published book, The Trumpeter of Krakow, as the preceding year's most distinguished contribution to American children's literature.[1]


Kelly was born in 1884 in Amesbury, Massachusetts. While a student at Dartmouth College (BA, 1906), Kelly was a member of the French club.

After "ten colorless, uneventful, and discouraging years working on newspapers", Kelly volunteered in 1918 to work with the welfare organisation Les Foyers du Soldat in Quentin, France. He found himself in charge of athletics and entertainment for 2,000 Polish soldiers in Haller's Army. In May 1919, Kelly was shipped across Germany to the newly recognised state of Poland in a closed boxcar along with the Polish troops. His new base was established in the old Napoleonic fortress of Modlin, near Warsaw. He wrote to his mother that "Warsaw is a beautiful city, reminds me in some ways of Denver."[citation needed]



During the 1919–1920 Polish–Soviet War, Kelly was posted at Chełm with Haller's Army on the Bug River River. In January 1921, Kelly returned to the US where he took a job as a teacher at Mercersburg Academy. During this period he wrote descriptions of his experience in Poland and warned against the dangers of Bolshevik propaganda. Six months later, he was hired by his alma mater, Dartmouth College, where he would teach for 33 years. In 1924, he married his wife Katherine but, in spite of his fame as a children’s author, did not have any children of his own.

1925–1926 Kelly went to the Jagiellonian University in Kraków as the first American exchange scholar sent to Poland by the Kosciuszko Foundation. Kelly served as an instructor of American Literature and Institutions in the Department of English Philology under Prof. Roman Dybowski.

On 4 July 1926, Kelly ceremonially placed a vase filled with earth from Tadeusz Kościuszko's North American battlefields at Yorktown and Saratoga in the Kościuszko Mound overlooking Kraków. That same year, he started work on The Trumpeter of Krakow which won the Newbery Medal for Children's literature in 1929. This novel contains the first known reference in any language to the now-popular legend of the hejnał trumpeter shot by a Tartar arrow.

Kelly spent 1930 as a researcher in Vilnius and 1931 in Lviv (both in Polish hands at that time). These inspired further Polish-themed children’s books: The Blacksmith of Vilno and The Golden Star of Halicz. His 1932 book, The Christmas Nightingale, was adapted as a play in 1935.

In 1943–1945, Kelly worked for the US State Department taking care of Polish refugees in León, Guanajuato, Mexico.[1]

Kelly was chairman of the Pulitzer Prize selection committee for the novel in the years 1951, 1952 and 1953. He retired from teaching in 1954, and retired to Chebeague Island, Maine, and Ojo Caliente, New Mexico.[1]

* * *
My own introduction to his writings was just this evening, New Years Even 2019/2020, when I was handed the 24th issue of "Christmas in My Heart" compiled by Joe E. Wheeler. It contains the Christmas Tale "A Wood Crowns the Water" and tells the story of a Polish man high up in the Tatras in a very romantic setting - this is a children's tale - and tells of a poor girl who lives with him, "high above the village of Zakopane" and a wandering boy who comes by chance upon them ... and the magic of the rest of the tale is for you to discover when you read the tale ....

[Jaga]

Kai, was this journalist a person who found a real story behind the trumpeter killers? I remember this book cover and Janina Domanska. She was a respected Polish artist and books illustrator.

[pieter]

Wonderful story Ron.🙂

[kaima]

On This Day in History > March 7, 1759:

Black Revolutionary War hero Agrippa Hull


"On March 7, 1759, black Revolutionary War hero Agrippa Hull is born to a free black family in Northampton, Massachusetts. Agrippa's family attended the church of Great Awakening preacher Jonathan Edwards. As a young boy, he was sent to Stockbridge to live with another free black family when his birth family experienced economic hardship. Agrippa lived in Stockbridge, a unique town made up of English and Dutch settlers, free slaves and a large number of Indians, all living peacefully together, for the rest of his life.
In 1777, at the age of 18, Agrippa joined the Continental Army and became an orderly for General John Paterson. In this role, Hull was present at the surrender of British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga. He spent the winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge and participated in the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse.



In May, 1779, Hull was reassigned to Colonel Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Polish engineer who was constructing the defenses at West Point at the time. Hull would remain with Kosciuszko for the last four years of the war and they would become fast friends. Hull was particularly known for his wit, quick humor and practical jokes. One time Kosciuszko even found Hull wearing Kosciuszko's uniform and throwing a party for his black friends.
During their time in the south, both Hull and Kosciuszko got a firsthand look at the effects of slavery that would mark them for the rest of their lives. Kosciuszko would denounce slavery and become an ardent abolitionist. For the last two years of the war, Hull often worked with the medical staff and learned how to do amputations and simple surgeries. He served in nearly every major battle of the southern campaign, including Cowpens, Guilford Courthouse, the Siege of Charleston and Eutaw Springs.
In July, 1783, after six years of service, Agrippa Hull was discharged personally by George Washington at West Point. He returned to Stockbridge and became a servant in the home of lawyer and politician Theodore Sedgwick who had been a member of the Continental Congress and would later be a US Senator. Sedgwick was known for representing Elizabeth Freeman, the first slave to win her freedom under Massachusetts' new Constitution, in her freedom suit. Freeman, known as "Mum Bet," worked alongside Hull for many years in the Sedgwick household.
Hull married and had several children. He used extra money from his employment to buy land and eventually became the largest black landholder in Stockbridge. He was well regarded by the entire town and viewed of as a father figure to all. In 1797, he had a warm reunion with Thaddeus Kosciuszko on his return visit to America. In 1831, he made a memorable journey to West Point to visit the US Military Academy, where he had served with Kosciuszko 50 years before. Hull entertained the cadets, who had recently erected a monument to Kosciuszko, with stories of the Polish hero's exploits.


Agrippa Hull died on May 21, 1848, the last surviving veteran of the American Revolution in Stockbridge. He treasured his discharge paper signed by George Washington for his entire life. He was viewed in Stockbridge and beyond as a philosopher, father and patriot and is another example of an heroic African-American who fought for the freedom of his country."
Revolutionary-War-and-Beyond.com