Christopher Morley

Author profile

born

May 05, 1890 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, The United States

died

March 28, 1957

gender

male

website

http://www.nassaulibrary.org/bryant/Localhist/m...

genre

Literature & Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry

About this author

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Christopher Morley was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania while his father was a mathematics professor at Haverford College. Morley graduated from this same school in 1910 as valedictorian. He then went to New College, Oxford University for three years on a Rhodes Scholarship, studying modern history. Arriving home, he headed out to Garden City to begin his life of letters at Doubleday, where he worked as a publicist and publisher's reader. About this time he married Helen Fairchild, and they lived first in Hempstead, and then in Queens Village. Morley moved to Philadelphia where he got his start as a newspaper reporter and then columnist for various publications. In 1920, he returned to New York City and took a job writing the column The Bowl...more Christopher Morley was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania while his father was a mathematics professor at Haverford College. Morley graduated from this same school in 1910 as valedictorian. He then went to New College, Oxford University for three years on a Rhodes Scholarship, studying modern history. Arriving home, he headed out to Garden City to begin his life of letters at Doubleday, where he worked as a publicist and publisher's reader. About this time he married Helen Fairchild, and they lived first in Hempstead, and then in Queens Village. Morley moved to Philadelphia where he got his start as a newspaper reporter and then columnist for various publications. In 1920, he returned to New York City and took a job writing the column The Bowling Green for the New York Evening Post. [1]

He was one of the founders and long-time contributing editor of the Saturday Review of Literature. A highly gregarious man, he was the mainstay of what he dubbed the "Three Hours for Lunch Club". Out of enthusiasm for the Sherlock Holmes stories, he became the founder of the Baker Street Irregulars and wrote the introduction to the standard omnibus edition of The Complete Sherlock Holmes. In 1936 he was appointed to revise and enlarge Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1937, 1948). He was one of the first judges for the Book-of-the Month Club, serving in that position until the early 1950s.

Author of more than 100 books of essays, poetry, and novels, Morley is probably best known as the author of Kitty Foyle (1939), which was made into an Academy Award-winning movie. Other well known works include Thunder on the Left (1925), and The Haunted Bookshop (1919) and Parnassus on Wheels (1917), his two novels of a fictional bookseller.

For most of his life, he lived in Roslyn Heights, Nassau County, Long Island, commuting to the city on the Long Island Rail Road, about which he wrote affectionately. In 1961, a 98-acre park was named in his honor in Nassau County. This park preserves his studio, the "Knothole", as a point of interest, his furniture and bookcases available to the historically-interested public.
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Books by Christopher Morley

Average rating: 3.96 · 1,505 ratings · 337 reviews · 66 distinct works

	The Haunted Bookshop 3.73 avg rating — 640 ratings — published 1918 — 60 editions	My rating:
	Parnassus on Wheels 4.11 avg rating — 495 ratings — published 1917 — 64 editions	My rating:
	Kitty Foyle 3.59 avg rating — 49 ratings — published 1939 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Human Being 3.82 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 1932 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Thunder on the Left 4.00 avg rating — 18 ratings — published 1925 — 7 editions	My rating:
	I Know A Secret 4.62 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 1927	My rating:
	The Man Who Made Friends with Himself 4.38 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 1949	My rating:
	Where the Blue Begins 3.67 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 1922 — 23 editions	My rating:
	Duet: Parnassus On Wheels & The Haunted Bookshop 4.00 avg rating — 7 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:
	Christopher Morley's Philadelphia by Christopher Morley, Ken Kalfus (Editor) 4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1990 — 2 editions	My rating:

More books by Christopher Morley…

Quotes by Christopher Morley

“There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love.”
― Christopher Morley, Pipefuls

tags: bibliophilia , books

2,549 people liked it

“Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity.”
― Christopher Morley

tags: do , morley , read , think

138 people liked it

“When you sell a man a book you don't sell just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night - there's all heaven and earth in a book, a real book.”
― Christopher Morley

tags: books

89 people liked it

See all Christopher Morley's quotes »

Polls

Which Of These BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS Books Would You Like To See As One Of Our Group Read Options For The Summer 2010 Challenge?

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

51 votes, 26.0%

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

29 votes, 14.8%

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

26 votes, 13.3%

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

25 votes, 12.8%

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

19 votes, 9.7%

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

14 votes, 7.1%

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee

11 votes, 5.6%

The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers

10 votes, 5.1%

The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley

8 votes, 4.1%

The 351 Books of Irma Arcuri: A Novel by David Bajo

3 votes, 1.5%

196 total votes

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