Jean Kenyon Mackenzie

Jean Kenyon Mackenzie (January 6, 1874 – September 2, 1936) was an American writer and Presbyterian missionary in West Africa.

Jean Kenyon Mackenzie
A white woman against a dark background. Her hair is center-parted and drawn back. She is wearing a high-collared white lacy blouse with a cameo at the throat, and a lace-trimmed dark overdress.
Jean Kenyon Mackenzie, from a 1918 newspaper.
BornJanuary 6, 1874
Elgin, Illinois
DiedSeptember 2, 1936
New York City
Other namesJean K. Mackenzie
Occupation(s)Writer, Presbyterian missionary

Early life

Jean Kenyon Mackenzie was born in Elgin, Illinois, the daughter of Robert Mackenzie and Lydia Ann McLeod Mackenzie.[1] Her father was born in Scotland and was a Presbyterian clergyman.[2] She went to school at Van Ness Seminary in San Francisco, the Sorbonne, and the University of California at Berkeley, graduating from the last in 1896.[3] She was on the editorial staff on the college newspaper, The Occident, and wrote poems published there.[4] She also earned a graduate degree at Smith College.[5]

Career

Mackenzie was a missionary teacher in West Africa from 1904 to 1914,[6] under the auspices of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church (USA).[5] She was based in Lolodorf and Efoulan in German-occupied Kamerun, and at Baraka Station in French-occupied Gabon.[3] She retired from the mission field for health reasons in 1914, but returned to Cameroon during World War I, as a diplomat working with missionaries, the Bulu people, and the French government.[5]

Mackenzie wrote short stories, poems, and articles, published in American periodicals including the Atlantic Monthly[7][8] Overland Monthly,[9] and The Perry Magazine.[10][11][12][13] After her missionary years, she also wrote books,[14] many of them intended for young readers or church study groups,[15][16] including Black Sheep: Adventures in West Africa (1916),[17] An African Trail (1917),[18] African Adventurers (1917),[19] The Story of a Fortunate Youth (1920),[20] African Lanterns (1920),[21] African Clearings (1924),[22] The Black Pioneer (1924; she wrote the introduction),[23] The Venture (1925, a collection of poems), A Lucky Lad (1926),[24] Friends of Africa (1928), and The Trader's Wife (1930, a novel).[3][25]

In 1923, Mackenzie was appointed to the Board of Foreign Missions, and represented the board at a mission conference in Belgium.[5] She was also a popular lecturer to church and women's groups.[2][26]

Personal life

Mackenzie died in 1936, aged 62 years, at her sister's home in New York City.[1] Her papers are in the collection of the Presbyterian Historical Society. A short biography of Mackenzie appeared as a daily devotional in A Year with American Saints (2006).[27]

References
  1. "Jean K. Mackenzie, Author, Dies at 62; Writer on Africa, Where She was Missionary". Times Union. 1936-09-03. p. 20. Retrieved 2021-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Famous Missionary and Writer to Talk". Democrat and Chronicle. 1918-09-21. p. 16. Retrieved 2021-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Horner, Norman A. "Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon" in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 425.
  4. Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (March 12, 1896). "At Dawn and The Latent (two poems)". Occident. 30: 87.
  5. "Jean Kenyon Mackenzie and the "Tribe of God"". Presbyterian Historical Society. March 11, 2013. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
  6. Piper, Jean (1926-01-03). "Woman Who Has Labored Among Real African Cannibals Describes Native Fashions". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. p. 74. Retrieved 2021-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (November 1922). "The Silver Cup". The Atlantic Monthly. 130: 608–618.
  8. Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (December 1922). "The Empty House, The Trodden Ways, The Name, The White Man's Dream, The Dawn". The Atlantic Monthly. 130: 788–790.
  9. Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (January 1899). "Indian Pink". Overland Monthly. 33: 121.
  10. Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (September 1899). "A Camp of Long Ago". The Perry Magazine. 2: 28–29.
  11. Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (March 1900). "Goldsmiths and Painters". The Perry Magazine. 2: 320–321.
  12. Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (October 1903). "The Sack of Dinant". The Perry Magazine. 6: 54–57.
  13. Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (December 1903). "Saint Nicholas and the Cups". The Perry Magazine. 6: 151–152.
  14. "Jean Kenyon Mackenzie (1874-1936)". The Online Books Page. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
  15. Millikin, B. Carter (August 1917). "New United Study Books". Woman's Work. 32: 174–175.
  16. "Study Books on Africa". Missionary Review of the World. 30: 480. June 1917.
  17. Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (1916). Black sheep: Adventures in West Africa. Houghton Mifflin Company, Riverside Press Cambridge. hdl:2027/nyp.33433068286016.
  18. Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (1917). An African trail. West Medford, Mass.: The Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions. hdl:2027/hvd.ah5scc.
  19. Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (1917). African adventurers. West Medford, Mass.: The Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions. hdl:2027/mdp.39015011416347.
  20. Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (1920). The story of a fortunate youth;chapters from the biography of an elderly gentleman. Boston: The Atlantic Monthly Press. hdl:2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t59c73p4j.
  21. Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (1920). African Lanterns: Sketches Written and Collected. Woman's Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.
  22. Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (1924). African clearings. Boston and New York. hdl:2027/uc1.$b296300.
  23. Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (1924). The black pioneer. New York: The Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. hdl:2027/nnc2.ark:/13960/t6b34bv6b.
  24. Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (1926). A Lucky Lad. M. Hopkinson.
  25. "'The Trader's Wife' An Amazing Novel". Hartford Courant. 1930-03-16. p. 72. Retrieved 2021-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. "Miss Mackenzie Lecture". The Montclair Times. 1918-11-09. p. 6. Retrieved 2021-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. Cady, G. Scott; Webber, Christopher L. (2006). Year with American Saints. Church Publishing, Inc. p. 449. ISBN 978-0-89869-798-8.
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