EDGAR STILLMAN-KELLEY, OHIO COMPOSER
By OPHIA D. SMITH
Among the outstanding men of Ohio is
Edgar Stillman-
Kelley, the dean of American composers.
For sixty years he has
enriched the musical literature of the
world. Contemporaneous
with Edward McDowell, Horatio Parker,
George Chadwick, and
Arthur Foote, he struggled, as they did,
for recognition in a day
when only Europeans could win applause.
Edgar Kelley was born in Sparta,
Wisconsin, on April 14;
1857, the first child born in that town.
His parents were Hiram
Edgar Kelley and Mary Clarinda (Bingham)
Kelley, both of
good New England stock.1 The
first seventeen years of Edgar's
life were spent in Sparta, where he
imbibed all the culture that
his parents and their New England
associates could give him.
Hiram Kelley was a revenue officer; in
his office was housed the
town library, and in his home was housed
the church library.2
Thus in this frontier town Edgar became
familiar with the best
minds of all ages while yet a child. He
learned to know and love
Shakespeare through his father's
dramatic reading of the Shakes-
pearean plays.3
While some of Kelley's most vivid
recollections are of his
early home, his work seems to have been
influenced more by his
New England ancestry than by his
frontier life. His mother
1 Hiram Kelley was a descendant
of Joseph Jenks, the superintendent of the
first iron foundry in the colonies, the
recipient of the first recorded patent in the
colonies, the maker of the dies from
which the famous "pine tree shillings" were
struck, and the inventor of the scythe
from which our modern scythe has developed.
See Dictionary of American Biography (New
York, 1928-1937). New International
Encyclodpedia, 2d ed. (New York, 1928), and Roger Burlingame, March
of the Iron
Men (New York, 1938), 63.
Mary Bingham Kelley was a descendant of
Governor William Bradford and
Thomas Bingham, a landed proprietor of
Connecticut.
2 Ophia D. Smith, Edgar
Stillman-Kelley, pamphlet, 1.
3 This familiarity with Shakespeare
played an important part in his life. The
hearing of Mendelssohnn's
"Midsummer Night's Dream" music played by the im-
becile, "Blind Tom,"
contributed to Edgar's decision to become a professional
musician. He had been undecided between
music and painting.--Rupert Hughes and
Arthur Elson, American Composers (Boston,
1914), 59.
(68)
SMITH: EDGAR STILLMAN-KELLEY, OHIO
COMPOSER 69
gave him his first music lessons and
later placed him under the
tuition of her own teacher, F. W.
Merriam, the composer of the
first oratorio in America. Through the
influence of William
Lord, a visiting Unitarian minister from
Boston, Edgar was sent
at the age of seventeen to Chicago to
study with Clarence Eddy
and Napoleon Ledochowski in preparation
for study in Germany.
In 1880 Edgar graduated from the
Stuttgart Conservatory,
where he had studied organ with Finck,
piano with Krueger and
Speidel, and composition and
orchestration with Max Seifriz,4 the
royal court conductor. After four years
of study with Seifriz,
Kelley was told by the master:5 "Some of
your themes are quite
unusual, being harmonic, even modulatory
in character, and are
therefore very difficult in treatment.
You must work out your
own solutions of the various problems,
and find their respective
development." Yet with this
encouragement, Seifriz made it clear
to his pupil that, "with all
freedom in behalf of originality, it was
essential to remain true to the vital
fundamental principles of
music, if the work in question were to
be worthy of the name of
art."6 This ideal Kelley has always
followed.
Upon his return to the United States,
Kelley settled in San
Francisco, where he exercised a
beneficient influence upon the
musical life of California. The life of
a musician in the Far West
nearly sixty years ago could hardly be
described as affluent. To
supplement his earnings as a teacher and
organist, Kelley acted
as musical critic for the San Francisco Examiner,
becoming known
as the first well-equipped musical
critic in the Far West. It was
in San Francisco that Kelley wrote his
first large work, the or-
chestral score for "Macbeth."7
This is music of solid worth, a
faithful interpretation of the play; it
is music that is original and
mightily conceived. John Parrott, a
wealthy musician who fi-
nanced the San Francisco Symphony
concerts, made possible a
4 Seifriz was a personal friend of
Wagner and Berlioz and was devoted to the
works of Beethoven and Bach. Kelley had
showed a remarkable understanding of
Beethoven before he went to Germany.
5 Edgar Stillman-Kelley, "Pilgrim's
Progress," Criterion (Oxford, O.) II (Spring
Issue, 1934), 9, 10.
6 Ibid.
7 This score was written upon a desk
that had belonged to Bret Harte; Kelley
was living in a house once occupied by
Harte. The theme for the "storm-hoofed
chargers" came to Kelley in a
dream; many of his most exquisite themes have come
to him in this way.
70
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
public performance of the
"Macbeth" music, and it was so suc-
cessful that McKee Rankin, the actor,
staged an elaborate pro-
duction of the play with Kelley's music.
The instantaneous suc-
cess of the venture made Edgar
Stillman-Kelley known through-
out the nation as a composer. In
spite of the fact that it failed
miserably in New York because it was
given a shabby performance
at an ill-chosen theater, the music has
been played by leading or-
chestras in the United States and in
foreign countries. Parts of
it have been transcribed for piano by
William H. Sherwood.8
Kelley's next important work was the
"Aladdin Suite." He
had been fascinated by the unexploited
and rich store of folk
music in San Francisco's Chinatown and
had assiduously collected
the quaint Oriental melodies, writing
them down as he heard them
played on Chinese instruments. In the
"Aladdin Suite" these
ancient melodies were liberally used.
This suite has been rec-
ognized as rivalling the works of
Richard Strauss in orchestral
virtuosity. Edward McDowell said that
the third movement--
"The Flight of the Genie with the
Palace"--was one of the great
symphonic poems of modern times. The
suite was first performed
in San Francisco,9 and was
performed in New York for the first
time at the third public concert of the
Manuscript Society10 at
Chickering Hall on April 15, 1891.11 The suite
has had many per-
formances at home and abroad. It was
performed at the erection
of the first statue to Richard Wagner
(Berlin, 1903), being placed
on the program of International
Concerts.12
8 Rupert Hughes, Famous American
Composers (Boston, 1900), 60.
9 Harvey Wickham in the San Francisco Chronicle
suggested that a monument
"with a lyre atop" be raised
to Kelley "who haunted Chinatown just as Robert
Louis Stevenson haunted it before him,
only instead of putting thoughts . . . into
words, Kelley put them into tones in
which he translated the Oriental idioms into
music which our Occidental ears could
hear and appreciate.--Etelka Evans, Lecture
at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music
on the occasion of Edgar Stillman-Kelley's
eightieth birthday, Apr. 6, 1937.
10 This society was formed in New York
to present worthy manuscripts of
American composers. At this particular
meeting were performed compositions by
Henry Huss, C. C. Mueller, Walter
Damrosch, R. H. Woodman, Burns O. Klein,
Edgar Stillman-Kelley and W. J.
Henderson.
11 James Huneker, the
"Raconteur" of the Musical Courier (New York) wrote:
"Edgar Kelley's Chinese music
brought to my nostrils a delicate savor of ylang-ylang,
opium, Hyson tea, . . . Japanese
pastels, the whole permeated by a laundry at-
mosphere. . . . When Kelley conducted, such is the
association of ideas, he became
a pig-tailed mandarin, Chickering Hall
dissolved, and 1, too, tried to fly a kite with
other grave Chinamen. In the distance a
pagoda glittered in the grove, the sky
was burnt blue, and a xylophone brought
me back to New York. Kelley, you have
a positive genius for the grotesque in
art. Do, for me, especially, write a concerto
for tom-tom, piccolo, telephones and
orchestra."--Sumner Salter, "Early Encourage-
ments to American Composers," Musical
Quarterly (New York), Jan., 1932, 92.
12 John Howard Payne and Edgar
Stillman-Kelley were the representative com-
posers from America.
SMITH: EDGAR STILLMAN-KELLEY, OHIO
COMPOSER 71
An ancient melody which a gray-queued
Chinese described to
Kelley as "a heap new tune--only
five hundled years old" was
embodied in one of Kelley's most popular
songs, "The Lady Pick-
ing Mulberries."13 The
Chinese feel that Kelley writes in the
true Chinese mode, not making a
ridiculous caricature of it, as so
many composers have done. The Japanese
have recognized
Kelley's painstaking research and fine
understanding of Oriental
music by giving him a prominent place in
the Japanese Ency-
clopedia of music.
While Kelley was struggling to become
established in New
York City, a talented young pianist came
to the metropolis to
study with William Mason. She was Jessie
Gregg, whom Kelley
had known as a young girl in San
Francisco.14 The friendship
was renewed and Jessie Gregg soon
decided to devote herself to
Edgar Stillman-Kelley's career rather
than her own. For a
betrothal gift Edgar wrote a magnificent
setting of Poe's "Israfel"
which Jessie has often sung in a rich
contralto voice in joint
concerts with her husband. The music of
"Israfel" is as su-
perbly dramatic as the great lyric
itself; it is undoubtedly one of
the world's great art songs. On July 23,
1891,
Edgar and Jessie
were married. From that day to this the
two are inseparable in
the minds of those who know them. Each
complements the other;
he the dreamer, and she the practical
one who makes the dreams
come true.
While in New York Kelley made a study of
ancient Greek
music which resulted in a fine set of
lectures, the composition of
"Prometheus Bound,"15 and led to his
being chosen to write the
orchestral score for the stage
production of Lew Wallace's Ben
Hur.16 In
preparation for this task Kelley made other prelim-
13 The Chinese Minister at Washington,
D. C., said of this song: "There is a
genuine Chinese song, every note of
it."
14 For
the story of their early friendship, see Smith, "Edgar
Stillman-Kelley,"
Criterion, II (Spring Issue, 1934), 19, 20.
15 Unfortunately, "Prometheus
Bound" was written for an ill-fated experiment,
the Theater of Arts and Letters. It has
not received the recognition which it deserves.
16 Edward McDowell was asked to write
the music, but refused because he was
not familiar with the stage. He
suggested Kelley because Kelley had written suc-
cessfully for the stage and was familiar
with ancient music. Kelley tells the story
that McDowell did not like opera because
at the first opera he ever attended he had
a seat over a big bass tuba and left the
performance in disgust.
Kelley had written a comic opera--Puritania,
a tale of witchcraft, the libretto
by C. M. S. McClellan. It had one
hundred performances at the Tremont Theater
72
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
inary studies of Oriental music, even
going to Brighton Beach
again and again to hear the Arabian
musicians who played in
the Midway Pleasance.17 The
"Ben Hur" music has been heard
in six thousand performances of the play
which has been per-
formed in nearly every English-speaking
country. This music
attracted students who followed Kelley
to Germany to study with
"the man who wrote the Ben Hur
music."18 When Ben Hur
was filmed a few years ago, it was the
original intention to use
Kelley's orchestral score, but Kelley
finally withdrew it because
he was not willing to make his music
conform to the exigencies
of Hollywood.
From 1896 to 1899 Kelley was a special
instructor in com-
position at the New York College of
Music and lecturer on music
in the Extension Department of New York
University. In the
year 1901/02 he took Horatio Parker's place at Yale as pro-
fessor of musical theory. Upon Parker's
return and at the
advice of Xavier Scharwenka, the Kelleys
went to Germany,
where Kelley, assisted by his wife,
became well established as a
teacher of composition. It was during
this time that he com-
posed his string quartette (op. 24) and
the quintette in f-sharp
minor for piano and strings (op. 20).
The quintette won for
him recognition in Europe as a composer,
in a day when Ameri-
cans were considered too light-minded to
write good music.19 In
the many performances of the quintette
Mrs. Kelley has usually
played the piano part.
In 1910 the Kelleys came to
Oxford, Ohio.20 A composition
fellowship was established for Kelley at
Western College for
in Boston in the summer of 1892. For
further information of this work see Smith,
"Edgar Stillman-Kelley," and
Hughes, Famous American Composers, 63.
Kelley had also written the music for
Steele MacKaye's Anarchy (Paul Kauvar);
the play and the music were successful
and Kelley's confidence in himself was re-
stored, but, characteristically enough,
MacKaye never paid Kelley for his work.--Con-
versation with Edgar Stillman-Kelley;
see Percy MacKaye, "In His Own Country,"
in Criterion, II (Spring Issue,
1934); also Percy McKaye, Epoch (New York, 1927),
II, 132.
17 Edgar Stillman-Kelley, Musical Instruments (Boston, 1925), 37.
18 When the play had its first
performance in London at Covent Garden, the
Kelleys sat with General Wallace in a
box especially constructed for them. The
king and the royal family were present.
19 William Klatte, music critic of the Berliner
Lokal Anzeiger, wrote: "In this
work we meet a musical personality
characterized by depth and marked originality
but also a rich imagination creating in
beautiful colors, yet with a refinement of
form and clarity of outline well worthy
of imitation."--Quoted by Etelka Evans,
Lecture, Apr. 6, 1936.
20 For details see Smith, "Edgar
Stillman-Kelley," 7-10.
SMITH: EDGAR STILLMAN-KELLEY, OHIO
COMPOSER 73
Women, a rare thing in this part of the
country. Mrs. Kelley
became the head of the Piano Department
at Western College,
which position she held until 1934, when
she retired to devote her
time entirely to the advancement of
American music.21 Here in
the quiet of the little college town
Edgar Stillman-Kelley has
produced some of his finest work.22
In connection with the work
at Western College, Mrs. Kelley lectured
at the Cincinnati Con-
servatory and Professor Kelley acted as
head of the Composition
Department at the same institution,
numbering among his stu-
dents such outstanding musicians as
Harold Morris, Rabbi James
G. Heller, Joseph Clokey, and Parvin
Titus.23
In 1913 Kelley's "New England
Symphony" was performed
at the Norfolk (Conn.) Festival of
Music, the symphony being
written especially for that occasion.
This is considered one of
the truly great American symphonies, a
work that is in the stand-
ard repertoire of every great orchestra.
It is a product of Kelley's
own blood, heart and soul. In it he has
made use of Indian
chants, Puritan hymns, and the songs of
New England birds.
The four movements are prefixed by
quotations from the logbook
of the "Mayflower."24 In 1914
it was given at the Liszt Society
Festival in Altenburg, Germany, at the
invitation of the Duke
of Saxe-Altenburg. In 1918 it was
performed at the Worcester
(Mass.) Festival. In this symphony the
composer has sought "to
embody in symphonic form certain phases
of thought and sen-
timent peculiar to that group of
pioneers who first made their
home in New England." For the Norfolk Festival of 1919,
21 Mrs. Kelley has been a prominent
lecturer, teacher and club woman in Ohio,
holding the presidencies of the Ohio
Music Teachers' Association, the Ohio Federated
Music Clubs, and the National Federation
of Music Clubs; she has been National
Chairman of American Music, and now
holds the chairmanship of the committee on
legislation for the establishment of a
portfolio of Secretary of Fine Arts in the
Cabinet of the President of the United
States.
22 The
first thing ever written in Oxford by Kelley was his book entitled, Chopin
the Composer (New York, 1913).
23 Distinguished students of Kelley are Clifford Page, Frederic Ayres,
Rupert
Hughes, Otto Meissner, Wallingford
Reigger, Lord Theodore Holland, Mabel Daniels,
Alexander Russell, Henry V. Stearns,
Charles Fouser, Leo Miller, Edwin J. Stringham,
and many others of equal prominence.
24
I "All great and honourable actions
are accompanied by great difficulties and
must be enterprised and overcome with
answerable courages."
II "Warm and fair weather: the
birds sang in the woods most pleasantly."
III "Great lamentation and
heaviness."
IV "The fit way to honour and
lament the departed is to be true to one another,
and to work together bravely for the
cause to which the living and the
dead have consecrated themselves."
74
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Kelley composed the "Alice in
Wonderland" suite. In 1932 it was
rescored and presented with costume and
pantomime in Cincinnati.
Mrs. Kelley has said, with a twinkle in
her eye, that her husband
has actually seen Alice in the moonlight
on the campus of Western
College. Certain it is that the composer
is as much at home, if not
more so, in the world of fancy than in
the world in which most
of us live.
The first work to be written in the new
studio, built espe-
cially for Doctor Kelley, was the
oratorio, "Pilgrim's Progress."25
This was written for the Cincinnati May
Festival of 1918 at the
suggestion of Mrs. Charles P. Taft who
had the text in her
possession--Elizabeth Hodgkinson's
poetic miracle play entitled
"Pilgrim's Progress." As a
child Kelley had been fascinated by
the pictures in a copy of Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress and had
learned to read in an incredibly short
time because he wanted to
read the story for himself. So touched
was he by Christian's
cry, "What shall I do?" that
he wrote out a theme for it. In
young manhood he had promised himself
that some day he would
write an oratorio based upon that
immortal story. The first per-
formance of the oratorio was given under
the direction of Eugen
Ysaye.26 In 1920 it was directed by Walter Damrosch in the
great festival given in New York in
memory of Leopold Dam-
rosch, the founder of the Oratorio
Society of New York. It was
performed at Covent Garden in London in
1925, the first great
choral work ever to be broadcast by the
British Broadcasting Com-
pany. The text was translated into
nineteen different languages
for broadcasting upon the continent. All
Europe heard it and
it was heard as far west as Pittsburgh
in the United States. In
1934 the Oxford Choral Union and the
Miami University Sym-
phony Orchestra, under the baton of Dean
Theodore Kratt, gave
an inspiring performance with Helen
Bickerton, Ottis Patton,
Raymond Koch and Fred Patton as
soloists. The little village
of Oxford took on the appearance of
Bayreuth as the guests ar-
25 See Ophia D. Smith, "A
Hillside in Ohio," Classmate (Cincinnati), Sept.
22, 1934.
26 Kelley tells the story that when he went to rehearse with the
principals for
the Cincinnati performance he found
Christian and Apollyon playing poker, and
Hopeful was in a somewhat hopeless state
of inebriation. However, they were equal
to their roles when the time came for
the performance.
SMITH: EDGAR STILLMAN-KELLEY, OHIO
COMPOSER 75
rived from many points, from
New York City to St. Louis,
Missouri. In the summer of 1937 the
oratorio was given a stage
production with costumes and stage
business, at Ann Arbor,
Michigan--a thing that the composer had
had constantly in mind
when he wrote the music for the play. It
was given under the
direction of Emery Gallup, who wrote the
magnificent organ
transcriptions for the performance.
Kelley's symphonic poem, "The Pit
and the Pendulum"
(based on Edgar Allan Poe's story of
that title), was composed
for the Cincinnati May Festival of 1919.
It was repeated in
Portland, Oregon, where it won the prize
offered in a national
contest sponsored by the National
Federation of Music Clubs.
On April 9, 1937, Kelley's
symphony, "Gulliver, His Voyage
to Lilliput," was given its world
premiere by the Cincinnati Sym-
phony Orchestra under the baton of
Eugene Goosens. On April
16 it was broadcast for the first time
by the National Broadcasting
Company, Walter Damrosch conducting.27
"Gulliver" is program music
describing the adventures of
Lemuel Gulliver in Lilliput. Through the
inspiration of Mrs.
Kelley the first movement was rewritten
with a short prelude and
renamed "Through the
Paleontoscope." The paleontoscope, ac-
cording to Doctor Kelley, is a device,
recently invented, which
sets "in motion again the visual
and audible vibrations arising
from the actions of former periods,"
enabling us to see and hear
the activities of Gulliver and the
Lilliputians. The invention
Kelley attributes to his friend, Hans
von Brechnowski (a purely
fictitious character), who also placed
at Kelley's disposal "cer-
tain unpublished papers of Lemuel
Gulliver containing the folk-
music of the Lilliputians."28 In
brilliance of orchestration, in
development of themes, in subtle play of
wit, and suggestive pro-
grammaticism, the Gulliver symphony
stands supreme, strength-
27 Kelley had sketched this symphony
some years earlier, and it had been per-
formed in Germany and in America. This,
however, was the first performance of the
completed symphony.
28
New York Herald-Tribune, Apr. 16, 1937. Edgar Stillman-Kelley, Lecture at
Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Apr.
6, 1937. For detailed description of this work
see Smith, "Gulliver: His Voyage to
Lilliput," in Oxford (Ohio) Press. Apr. 15,
1937. An interesting feature in the last
movement of the symphony is a lively horn-
pipe, the only known hornpipe ever used
in classical music.--Herald-Tribune, Apr.
16, 1937.
76
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
ening the opinion that as a writer of
fine humorous music, Kelley
cannot be excelled.
Doctor Edgar Stillman-Kelley29 has done
notable work as
a composer in the smaller forms, but
only a few of them can be
mentioned here. It is interesting to
note some of the compositions
based on works of American writers.
"Israfel" and "The Pit and
the Pendulum" have been mentioned
elsewhere; Kelley has also
set to music Poe's "Eldorado."
A set of six lyrics by American
poets furnish the texts for his
"Phases of Love," a song cycle
that is an invaluable addition to our
musical literature. A stirring
choral work has for its text Walt
Whitman's "Captain, O My
Captain." "The Headless
Horseman," written for piano solo, is
a delicious bit of humor describing the
charms of the fair Katrina
and the ignominous flight of Ichabod
Crane from the headless
horseman of Sleepy Hollow. "Musical
Tales Retold for Children"
were written in Oxford to supplement
"The Little Old Woman
Who Went to Town Her Eggs For to
Sell." These musical stories
were written and played in the studio to
wide--eyed children-both
black and white--from the Oxford public
school. If the young-
sters caught the message, the tale was
considered finished; if not,
the musical story was rewritten.
Edgar Stillman-Kelley is not only a
composer but a pianist,
conductor, lecturer, teacher, and
author. Besides numerous ar-
ticles and essays, he is the author of Chopin,
the Composer and
Musical Instruments. His essays on famous men include those on
Peter Iljitch Tschaikovsky which are
considered among the finest
things ever written about that composer.
Modeste Tschaikovsky
considered them the most beautiful and
just appraisals of Peter's
work that he had ever seen and placed
them in the Tschaikovsky
archives. At present Doctor Kelley is
engaged in the preparation
of a significant book on the music of
Richard Wagner. He
stresses the epoch-making features of
Wagner's music, especially
29 Miami University conferred the degree
of Doctor of Letters upon Edgar
Stillman-Kelley in June 1916; the
University of Cincinnati conferred the degree of
Doctor of Laws the following year.
Doctor Kelley is a member of the Society of
Mayflower Descendants, the National
Institute of Arts and Letters, and the Inter-
national Music Society.
In 1934 Miami University conferred upon
Jessie Stillman-Kelley the degree of
Doctor of Laws and Western College for
Women conferred upon her the same year
the degree of Doctor of Human Letters.
SMITH: EDGAR STILLMAN-KELLEY, OHIO
COMPOSER 77
the logical development of harmonic
themes. Previous authors
have called attention only to the
melodic themes.
In addition to the work on Wagner, the
scholarly composer
is working on a piano concerto, a string
quartette, and a sym-
phonic suite which is entitled
"Nocturnal Gotham," the first move-
ment of which suggests the skyline of
New York City at night and
the last movement depicts Ellis Island.
One of the outstanding
characteristics of Kelley's work is that
in all his originality of
mind and opulence of fancy, he ever
remains a strict formalist
in composition. As a tribute to "a
master of form," Percy Goet-
schius has dedicated his The Larger
Musical Forms to Edgar
Stillman-Kelley.
Among musical critics and composers the
concensus of opin-
ion is that Kelley has been a leader in
setting new standards and
in bringing order out of the chaos
following the Wagnerian era.
He writes clearly and logically and
expresses his thought with
superb technique at his command. His
music is eternally young,
dynamic, and warm, glowing with the
beauty, the poetry, the rich-
ness of his mind and heart.
EDGAR STILLMAN-KELLEY, OHIO COMPOSER
By OPHIA D. SMITH
Among the outstanding men of Ohio is
Edgar Stillman-
Kelley, the dean of American composers.
For sixty years he has
enriched the musical literature of the
world. Contemporaneous
with Edward McDowell, Horatio Parker,
George Chadwick, and
Arthur Foote, he struggled, as they did,
for recognition in a day
when only Europeans could win applause.
Edgar Kelley was born in Sparta,
Wisconsin, on April 14;
1857, the first child born in that town.
His parents were Hiram
Edgar Kelley and Mary Clarinda (Bingham)
Kelley, both of
good New England stock.1 The
first seventeen years of Edgar's
life were spent in Sparta, where he
imbibed all the culture that
his parents and their New England
associates could give him.
Hiram Kelley was a revenue officer; in
his office was housed the
town library, and in his home was housed
the church library.2
Thus in this frontier town Edgar became
familiar with the best
minds of all ages while yet a child. He
learned to know and love
Shakespeare through his father's
dramatic reading of the Shakes-
pearean plays.3
While some of Kelley's most vivid
recollections are of his
early home, his work seems to have been
influenced more by his
New England ancestry than by his
frontier life. His mother
1 Hiram Kelley was a descendant
of Joseph Jenks, the superintendent of the
first iron foundry in the colonies, the
recipient of the first recorded patent in the
colonies, the maker of the dies from
which the famous "pine tree shillings" were
struck, and the inventor of the scythe
from which our modern scythe has developed.
See Dictionary of American Biography (New
York, 1928-1937). New International
Encyclodpedia, 2d ed. (New York, 1928), and Roger Burlingame, March
of the Iron
Men (New York, 1938), 63.
Mary Bingham Kelley was a descendant of
Governor William Bradford and
Thomas Bingham, a landed proprietor of
Connecticut.
2 Ophia D. Smith, Edgar
Stillman-Kelley, pamphlet, 1.
3 This familiarity with Shakespeare
played an important part in his life. The
hearing of Mendelssohnn's
"Midsummer Night's Dream" music played by the im-
becile, "Blind Tom,"
contributed to Edgar's decision to become a professional
musician. He had been undecided between
music and painting.--Rupert Hughes and
Arthur Elson, American Composers (Boston,
1914), 59.
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