Herbert Kubly

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
Kubly in 1956
BornHerbert Oswald Nicholas Kubly
(1915-04-26)April 26, 1915
New Glarus, Wisconsin
DiedAugust 7, 1996(1996-08-07) (aged 81)
New Glarus, Wisconsin
OccupationAuthor, playwright
Notable worksAmerican in Italy
Notable awardsNational Book Award for Nonfiction, 1956
SpouseEmily Lee Hill

Biography

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

The University of Wisconsin–Parkside English Department established the Herbert Kubly Writing Award in 1996 in Kubly's memory.[11]

Books
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  1. Ancestry.com. Social Security Death Index [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007.
  2. "National Book Awards – 1956". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
  3. "In the Alumni World", The Wisconsin Alumnus, November 1937, p. 84.
  4. "Trailing the Badgers", The Wisconsin Alumnus, February 1943, p. 176.
  5. Internet Broadway Database.
  6. "Trailing the Badgers", The Wisconsin Alumnus, June 15, 1945, p. 21.
  7. "Writer Kubly Dies", Wisconsin State Journal, August 9, 1996, p. 1-B.
  8. "With the Classes", Wisconsin Alumnus, December 1949, p. 30.
  9. Port of New York, passenger list of the S.S. Constitution, December 24, 1951, list 3.
  10. "Badger Bookshelf", Wisconsin Alumnus, April 15, 1956, p. 39.
  11. "Memorial Set for Parkside Teacher". The Journal Times. October 13, 1996. p. 16. Retrieved December 28, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. open access
  12. "Herbert Kubly Appointed English Professor at Parkside", Wisconsin Alumnus, February 1968, p. 22–23.
  13. Ancestry.com. Wisconsin Marriages, 1973-1997 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005.
  14. "Herb Kubly, 81; Wrote About Italy", The New York Times, August 13, 1996, p. B6.
  15. "Playwright Scores Again", The Wisconsin Alumnus, February 1948, p. 33.
  16. 1984 Notable Wisconsin Authors, Wisconsin Library Association.
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