Emily Kimbrough (1899–1989)

Emily Kimbrough was born in Muncie, Indiana, and moved to Chicago with her family at age 11. At 19, she took an adventurous trip to Europe with her friend Cornelia Otis Skinner. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1921 and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. Back in the USA in 1923, she went to work as an advertising copywriter for the department store Marshall Field & Co. She began a career as a journalist when she became a researcher and writer for the company's quarterly catalog, Fashions of the Hour, and was later promoted to editor of the publication. In 1927, she was named managing editor of the Ladies' Home Journal, a position she held until 1929. That year, she and her husband John Wrench had twin daughters; they were divorced a few years later. Emily became a freelance writer and contributed articles to various national magazines, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Country Life, House and Garden, Travel, Readers' Digest, and Saturday Review of Literature. In 1942, she and Cornelia published a joint memoir, Our Hearts Were Young and Gay, based on their light-hearted European adventures. The book became a hugely popular New York Times best seller, and the two friends went to Hollywood to work on a script for the movie adaptation. Emily wrote about this experience in We Followed Our Hearts to Hollywood (1943). At one time, her series of travel guides to England, Italy, Portugal, Greece, France, and Ireland were standards for Americans abroad. Further books included Through Charley's Door (1952), about her experiences at Marshall Field; How Dear to My Heart (1944) about her childhood; The Innocents from Indiana (1950); and Now and Then (1972). In 1952, she joined WCBS Radio as a host.

Emily Kimbrough & Cornelia Otis Skinner also co-wrote books.