[Manuscript Music and Lyrics] Songs

Item Details

[Manuscript Music and Lyrics] Songs--Words and Music by Eleanor Mercein Kelly, n.p., n.d., 14 x 11.5 inches, 20pp. 

Dark brown suede covers with moire endpapers. Title and author stamped in gilt on paste down label. Fair condition only. Book appears complete but is falling apart. Shows wear in all aspects yet remains relatively clean inside. Light soiling and chipping to leaves. Manuscript notation on title page states, "Kelly Shop Printers and Binders", which this cataloger assumes is a reference to a homebound book.

Unrecorded collection of manuscript sheet music by author Eleanor Mercein Kelly (1880-1968). Kelly is best remembered for her romantic fiction. Early in her career she wrote a Kentucky-based trilogy then moved on to locales throughout the world. She moved to Louisville, Kentucky in 1900. Four of her stories were adapted to film and one on Broadway.  Kelly wrote a total of fifteen books, including fourteen novels and one biographical study, in addition to numerous short stories published in the Ladies Home Journal, Collier's, and Saturday Evening Post. In a limited on-line search, we do not find any record of further work as a songwriter or composer.

Song titles include "In a Cloister", "Creole Air", "Last Trail", "Mothers", "A May Song", "Candletime", "In Exile", and "A Sea Song". Lyrically, the songs are thematic and perhaps a bit simplistic and romantic. Musically, the tunes show some amount of skill. From "In a Cloister", "Now at last the nested birds begin to stir, waiting for the day, and the cloister bell tolls calling us to pray--Now at last I shall be free from dreams of her, for the shadows flee away."

A unique, one-of-a-kind manuscript collection of tunes from a relatively well-known early 20th century author.