Just 143 years ago this month, Sophie Kerr was born in Denton in a white frame house at the eastern edge of town.
The Caroline County native who was to become an editor of the popular Woman’s Home Companion and author, published 23 novels and 500 short stories before she died in 1965.

Since she only lived in Denton a short time early in her life, and did all of her writing in New England and New York City, she is not that well-known in Maryland and some folks who enjoyed her writings think she is one of the state’s most neglected authors.

But while she may not be a prominent person in her own birthplace, Sophie Kerr is a big name at Washington College where she left all of of her estate, valued at $573,000, for the college to use as a literary prize for graduating seniors.

Initiated in 1968, the cash award to one graduate has varied from $9,000 the first year to this past year’s $65,000 award.
This makes it the richest prize offered to any of the nation’s undergraduates, and second only to the Nobel Prize in the field of literature in the world. The coveted Pulitizers bring their recipients only $1,000 and the Bancroft Prize is $4,000.

At first, there was some doubt that Miss Kerr would have intended so much money as a single award. But executors of the estate assured officials at Washington College there was no mistake and she did indeed wish it exactly that way. She wanted one person to receive something quite extraordinary.

Equally important to the college, the 10th oldest in the U.S., as the individual prize winner, is the English Department’s use of the income from the other half of the bequest. Funds from this income have been used for college scholarships, visiting lecturers and poets, literary conferences and a creative writing program to steadily enhance the English Department.
Some of Miss Kerr’s background, which may be unfamiliar to Caroline County residents, are as follows:

The house in which she is believed to have been born was originally outside the Denton town limits and her father had many fruit and nut trees on 150 acres. He was a horticulturist, and sold produce in town, probably a fore-runner of the farmers in town today.

She was born on August 23, 1880, and attended Hood College in Frederick, receiving her BA degree in 1898. In 1901 she got her masters degree at the University of Vermont.

She married John D. Underwood in 1904, and during the four years of her marriage lived in New England. In 1908 she became divorced and never remarried.

As a very young woman she did some newspaper work and later was woman’s editor of the Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph & Gazette. But she said at one time all she ever wanted to do was to write. So she wrote. This led to her becoming managing editor of now defunct Woman’s Home Companion. Some of her short stories appeared in the magazine. One of her best novels, “Adventure With Women” ran serially in it.

She travelled widely, but in her later years spent most of her time in a New York apartment with her pet cat. Through her travels, she became especially fond of France and Spain, but retained her love for Maryland, particularly the Eastern Shore. She was reported to have been working on a non-fiction piece when she died at 84.

She was known as a delightful hostess and termed a “culinary expert and connoisseur of food.” One of the most appealing features of her books, particularly those with an Eastern Shore setting, was her mouth-watering descriptions of wonderful meals prepared and eaten. Sometimes she would include enough of a description of a recipe so that a good cook could produce a dish she describes.

Among her numerous novels and short stories were: “The Blue Envelope,” “The Golden Block,” “Painted Meadows,” “Jennie Devlin,” “The Man Who Knew the Date,” and “As Tall as Pride.”

She once said, “I certainly have no message for the world. It’s just light fiction.”

Well, she may not have attained the best-seller lists, but she did something else that would survive, would help some new Sophie Kerr, would have a happy twist, like a Sophie Kerr story. It’s the magnificent check that goes each June to an aspiring writer.

The late Dr. Joseph McCain, a former president of Washington College, perhaps put it best: “Even mortar and bricks fall down. What better way to perpetuate your name than a prize?”