Herbert Oswald Nicholas Kubly (April 26, 1915 – August 7, 1996)[1] was an American author and playwright. For his first book, American in Italy, he won the 1956 U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction.[2]
Herbert Kubly | |
|---|---|
 Kubly in 1956 | |
| Born | Herbert Oswald Nicholas Kubly April 26, 1915 New Glarus, Wisconsin |
| Died | August 7, 1996 (aged 81) New Glarus, Wisconsin |
| Occupation | Author, playwright |
| Notable works | American in Italy |
| Notable awards | National Book Award for Nonfiction, 1956 |
| Spouse | Emily Lee Hill |
Biography edit
Kubly was born and raised on a farm in the Swiss American community of New Glarus, Wisconsin. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin School of Journalism in 1937. His first professional work as a journalist was for the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph.[3] He later wrote for the New York Herald Tribune.[4]
His first play, Men to the Sea, was produced on Broadway in 1944.[5] Between 1945 and 1947 he served as the music critic for Time magazine.[6][7]
In 1950 Kubly became an associate professor of speech at the University of Illinois,[8] but he left that position to accept a Fulbright grant to Italy, where he spent 18 months in 1950–1951.[9][10] He taught creative writing at San Francisco State College in the 1960s. From 1969 to 1984, he was an English professor and writer-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin–Parkside.[11][12]
He married Emily Lee Hill in 1989.[13] He died in New Glarus at age 81.[14]
Legacy edit
The University of Wisconsin–Parkside English Department established the Herbert Kubly Writing Award in 1996 in Kubly's memory.[11]
Books edit
- American in Italy - 1955
- Easter in Sicily - 1956
- Varieties of Love (stories) - 1958
- Italy (Life World Library) - 1961
- The Whistling Zone (novel) - 1963
- At Large (autobiographical) - 1964
- Switzerland (Life World Library) - 1964
- Gods and Heroes - 1969
- The Duchess of Glover (novel) - 1975
- Native's Return - 1981
- The Parkside Stories - 1985
Plays edit
- Men to the Sea - 1944
- The story concerns the wives of five sailors, who live at a boarding house in Brooklyn, New York while their husbands are away at sea.
- Inherit the Wind, with Waldemar Hansen - 1946
- A psychological drama set in Philadelphia in 1903. A production opened in London circa 1948.[15] (Not the play of the same name by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee.)
- Punch and Judy - 1948
- About the United Nations and the possibility of world organization.
- The Cocoon - 1954
- Produced in London.
- Beautiful Dreamer - 1956
- A comedy about a striptease artist trying to escape the police.
- Virus - 1973
- Produced at the University of Wisconsin–Parkside[16]
Further reading edit
- Current Biography Yearbook. 1959 edition. H.W. Wilson Co., 1959.
- Contemporary Authors. Volumes 5-8, 1st revision. Gale Research, 1969.
- Who Was Who in America. Volume 12, 1996-1998. Marquis Who's Who, 1998.
References edit
- ^ Ancestry.com. Social Security Death Index [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007.
- ^ "National Book Awards – 1956". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
- ^ "In the Alumni World", The Wisconsin Alumnus, November 1937, p. 84.
- ^ "Trailing the Badgers", The Wisconsin Alumnus, February 1943, p. 176.
- ^ Internet Broadway Database.
- ^ "Trailing the Badgers", The Wisconsin Alumnus, June 15, 1945, p. 21.
- ^ "Writer Kubly Dies", Wisconsin State Journal, August 9, 1996, p. 1-B.
- ^ "With the Classes", Wisconsin Alumnus, December 1949, p. 30.
- ^ Port of New York, passenger list of the S.S. Constitution, December 24, 1951, list 3.
- ^ "Badger Bookshelf", Wisconsin Alumnus, April 15, 1956, p. 39.
- ^ a b "Memorial Set for Parkside Teacher". The Journal Times. October 13, 1996. p. 16. Retrieved December 28, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Herbert Kubly Appointed English Professor at Parkside", Wisconsin Alumnus, February 1968, p. 22–23.
- ^ Ancestry.com. Wisconsin Marriages, 1973-1997 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005.
- ^ "Herb Kubly, 81; Wrote About Italy", The New York Times, August 13, 1996, p. B6.
- ^ "Playwright Scores Again", The Wisconsin Alumnus, February 1948, p. 33.
- ^ 1984 Notable Wisconsin Authors, Wisconsin Library Association.
External links edit
- Herbert Kubly, "101 Years of Yodeling", Time.
- Herbert Kubly, "Discovering America", Wisconsin Alumnus.