Emily Kimbrough (1899–1989)
Author of Our Hearts Were Young and Gay
About the Author
Disambiguation Notice:
Emily Kimbrough & Cornelia Otis Skinner also co-wrote books.
Works by Emily Kimbrough
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1899-10-23
- Date of death
- 1989-02-10
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Bryn Mawr College
Sorbonne University - Occupations
- editor
radio host
author
journalist
travel writer - Organizations
- Marshall Field's
Ladies' Home Journal
WCBS - Short biography
- 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.
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Muncie, Indiana, USA
- Places of residence
- New York, New York, USA
- Place of death
- Manhattan, New York, USA
- Disambiguation notice
- Associated Place (for map)
- New York, USA
Members
Reviews
Sophie and Arthur Kober, Howard and Dorothy Lindsay, and Emily Kimbrough make up the "right good" crew. This is the story of the five of them are canal cruising aboard first the Venturer and then the Maid Marysue. They travel between Staffordshire and London with plenty of adventure along the way.
Parts about Kimbrough that made me laugh: she was a self proclaimed arguer. She liked a persuasive dialogue challenge. Throughout And a Right Good Crew she was witty and humorous. I loved how she show more described herself and her companions as heathens who didn't know how to make a proper pot of tea. She shamelessly uses her daughter's pregnancy to gain special treatment while traveling and desperately wanted to see how a game of darts was played. I think I would have liked to be friends with Emily Kimbrough.
A few scenes I enjoyed: shopping in 1950s England. They didn't supply shoppers with containers for their purchases, (What is old is new again. Maine does provide shopping bags, either.) Arthur Kober's attempt to steer the Maid Marysue, and the ringing of the bells.
Beyond a pleasant memoir, And a Right Good Crew includes some practical late 1950s information about traveling by canal: a glossary of terms, a step by step directive of how to take a boat through a lock, a list of books for suggested reading, and a tally of basic expenses. show less
Parts about Kimbrough that made me laugh: she was a self proclaimed arguer. She liked a persuasive dialogue challenge. Throughout And a Right Good Crew she was witty and humorous. I loved how she show more described herself and her companions as heathens who didn't know how to make a proper pot of tea. She shamelessly uses her daughter's pregnancy to gain special treatment while traveling and desperately wanted to see how a game of darts was played. I think I would have liked to be friends with Emily Kimbrough.
A few scenes I enjoyed: shopping in 1950s England. They didn't supply shoppers with containers for their purchases, (What is old is new again. Maine does provide shopping bags, either.) Arthur Kober's attempt to steer the Maid Marysue, and the ringing of the bells.
Beyond a pleasant memoir, And a Right Good Crew includes some practical late 1950s information about traveling by canal: a glossary of terms, a step by step directive of how to take a boat through a lock, a list of books for suggested reading, and a tally of basic expenses. show less
Cornelia Otis Skinner, an American actress, writer and screenwriter co-wrote Our Hearts were Young and Gay with her good friend Emily Kimbrough, a memoir about their travels in Europe in the 1920’s. It is difficult to see where Kimbrough’s collaboration is exactly as the book is written in Skinner’s first person narrative. None of that seems important however as the book is full of charm and humour, and both women come across quite hilariously full of adorably lovable quirks and show more eccentricities.
2015-07-13_21.14.41Having finished college Cornelia and Emily embark on a European tour which they have planned for some time. There is much excitement, at their first independent adventure and not a little horror over the peculiar safety pocket both girls had been made to wear beneath their clothes by anxious parents. They set sail for England on board the Montcalm, their relatively cheap ticket meaning their cabin is well below decks. Barely do the two get themselves settled than they are uprooted again. The ship becomes stuck, run aground and starting to tip, thankfully still just in sight of shore. When the ship is finally freed they limp on to Canada where the girls spend a week with an Aunt of Cornelia’s before finally setting off once more on another ship. Aboard the Empress of France Cornelia and Emily can finally enter in to life aboard an Atlantic going vessel. Their often hapless shipboard life is recounted with the sort of gentle humour which is reminiscent of E M Delafield’s A Provincial Lady. There is deck tennis to be negotiated, and blushed over, a concert to take part in, and ‘nice women’ to try and befriend. Then Cornelia falls victim to measles. Waiting to meet the girls in London are Cornelia’s parents, who with Emily’s help must smuggle poor Cornelia – who has plastered herself with makeup to hide the beginnings of a rash – past the health inspector.
In London the two friends’ new found independence is somewhat diluted by the comforting presence of Cornelia’s parents nearby, who provide them with a good meal or two. In England the two American young ladies are introduced to all manner of new experiences including English rain, Hampton Court, encounter H G Wells, a potentially exploding hot water geyser and particularly inexplicable to Emily – British currency. 2015-07-13_21.13.00
“It was in vain that I tried to show her the difference between a half-crown and two shilling piece. She refused to admit they were anything but two versions of fifty cents and persisted in being so stubbornly obtuse about it I finally told her if she’d just bring herself to read what was written on them she’d know. This didn’t work out so well either, because she’d keep taxi drivers waiting interminably while she’d scan the reading matter of each coin, turning it round and round, sometimes breathing on it and rubbing it clear. When I suggested that people might think her awfully queer she said not at all, they’d merely mistake her for a coin collector. I tried explaining to her that “one florin” meant two shillings but that made her madder. The day we received a bill made out in guineas, and I told her there was no such thing as a guinea, it was a pound and one shilling, only the swanker shops charged you guineas, and you paid in pounds and shillings, but you called it guineas although, as I had said, there really was no such thing, she slapped me”
Leaving Cornelia’s parents in England, the two friends continue their travels to France. In Normandy they stay in a small French pension and in Rouen a house of ill-repute which the two innocents mistake for a guest house – much to the bemusement of the inhabitants.
“Some of the doors were open, and we caught glimpses of the other guests who seemed quite surprised to see us and we were indeed surprised to see them. They all appeared to be young women in very striking evening dresses. This was certainly unusual, but we concluded they must all be waiting to go out to a dinner party. It never once occurred to us that we weren’t exactly in keeping with the ton of the place, I, in mu Buster Brown panama and Emily in her pepper and salt tweeds.
Madame led us up several flights of stairs and allotted us a modest room quite removed from the more elaborate ones below. She explained we’d be tranquille there. Then in a faint, far-away voice, she asked how we’d happened to come to her place.”
After Normandy the girls finally get to Paris, they see the Eiffel Tower, encounter bed- bugs, visit the Ritz bar and catch up again with Cornelia’s parents who have now arrived in Paris too. Cornelia even manages to take a few acting lessons with an acting hero. Soon it is time to leave, the adventure at an end. While Emily heads off with friends on a motor trip, Cornelia heads home to the states.
This hugely entertaining memoir with its hilarious illustrations is deliciously infectious and has quite definitely whetted my appetite for the two essay collections Nuts in May and Popcorn that I have waiting. show less
2015-07-13_21.14.41Having finished college Cornelia and Emily embark on a European tour which they have planned for some time. There is much excitement, at their first independent adventure and not a little horror over the peculiar safety pocket both girls had been made to wear beneath their clothes by anxious parents. They set sail for England on board the Montcalm, their relatively cheap ticket meaning their cabin is well below decks. Barely do the two get themselves settled than they are uprooted again. The ship becomes stuck, run aground and starting to tip, thankfully still just in sight of shore. When the ship is finally freed they limp on to Canada where the girls spend a week with an Aunt of Cornelia’s before finally setting off once more on another ship. Aboard the Empress of France Cornelia and Emily can finally enter in to life aboard an Atlantic going vessel. Their often hapless shipboard life is recounted with the sort of gentle humour which is reminiscent of E M Delafield’s A Provincial Lady. There is deck tennis to be negotiated, and blushed over, a concert to take part in, and ‘nice women’ to try and befriend. Then Cornelia falls victim to measles. Waiting to meet the girls in London are Cornelia’s parents, who with Emily’s help must smuggle poor Cornelia – who has plastered herself with makeup to hide the beginnings of a rash – past the health inspector.
In London the two friends’ new found independence is somewhat diluted by the comforting presence of Cornelia’s parents nearby, who provide them with a good meal or two. In England the two American young ladies are introduced to all manner of new experiences including English rain, Hampton Court, encounter H G Wells, a potentially exploding hot water geyser and particularly inexplicable to Emily – British currency. 2015-07-13_21.13.00
“It was in vain that I tried to show her the difference between a half-crown and two shilling piece. She refused to admit they were anything but two versions of fifty cents and persisted in being so stubbornly obtuse about it I finally told her if she’d just bring herself to read what was written on them she’d know. This didn’t work out so well either, because she’d keep taxi drivers waiting interminably while she’d scan the reading matter of each coin, turning it round and round, sometimes breathing on it and rubbing it clear. When I suggested that people might think her awfully queer she said not at all, they’d merely mistake her for a coin collector. I tried explaining to her that “one florin” meant two shillings but that made her madder. The day we received a bill made out in guineas, and I told her there was no such thing as a guinea, it was a pound and one shilling, only the swanker shops charged you guineas, and you paid in pounds and shillings, but you called it guineas although, as I had said, there really was no such thing, she slapped me”
Leaving Cornelia’s parents in England, the two friends continue their travels to France. In Normandy they stay in a small French pension and in Rouen a house of ill-repute which the two innocents mistake for a guest house – much to the bemusement of the inhabitants.
“Some of the doors were open, and we caught glimpses of the other guests who seemed quite surprised to see us and we were indeed surprised to see them. They all appeared to be young women in very striking evening dresses. This was certainly unusual, but we concluded they must all be waiting to go out to a dinner party. It never once occurred to us that we weren’t exactly in keeping with the ton of the place, I, in mu Buster Brown panama and Emily in her pepper and salt tweeds.
Madame led us up several flights of stairs and allotted us a modest room quite removed from the more elaborate ones below. She explained we’d be tranquille there. Then in a faint, far-away voice, she asked how we’d happened to come to her place.”
After Normandy the girls finally get to Paris, they see the Eiffel Tower, encounter bed- bugs, visit the Ritz bar and catch up again with Cornelia’s parents who have now arrived in Paris too. Cornelia even manages to take a few acting lessons with an acting hero. Soon it is time to leave, the adventure at an end. While Emily heads off with friends on a motor trip, Cornelia heads home to the states.
This hugely entertaining memoir with its hilarious illustrations is deliciously infectious and has quite definitely whetted my appetite for the two essay collections Nuts in May and Popcorn that I have waiting. show less
This book is the tale of two girls aged 19, who decide to travel from Montreal to London to Paris together during the 1920’s. They are both incredible naïve about traveling abroad and the world in general, but that is perhaps what makes this book so hilarious. Their entertaining adventures range from getting measles on board their ship and having to be smuggled into England, getting lost in a maze at Hampton Court, and spending the night at a brothel. This book was given to me by my show more grandmother a few years ago and ever since then I have been inspired to travel to all these places and experience these adventures for myself. This book transports you back into a time period that no longer exists and it’s always a delight to imagine life with these girls because they are incredibly carefree and amusing. show less
Our Hearts Were Young and Gay: An Unforgettable Comic Chronicle of Innocents Abroad in the 1920s by Cornelia Otis Skinner
Written in 1942, this is a charming recollection of two American college girls going to England and France in the early 1920s. Though insisting on their independence and feeling very adventurous, they are in fact rather innocent girls who frequently fall back on family assistence, the family having very wisely decided to tour Europe at the same time. Europe after the first World War was still an old world place that made me quite nostalgic.
It's a truly hilarious recollection of this show more memorable trip. Otis Skinner is poking fun at her youthful self who tried to be sophisticated and world-wise but doesn't even know about LIFE and has to be enlightend by medieval artefacts in the Musée Cluny (I would like to see these, actually). But no shipwreck, attack of measles or misunderstanding a brothel for a hostel can deter them from having great fun - and the whole book is breathing that sense of enjoying life we only have when very young adults. I sat several times laughing so hard that tears rolled down my face.
A highly entertaining read for a rainy afternoon, intended for everyone who needs an uplift. Highly recommended! show less
It's a truly hilarious recollection of this show more memorable trip. Otis Skinner is poking fun at her youthful self who tried to be sophisticated and world-wise but doesn't even know about LIFE and has to be enlightend by medieval artefacts in the Musée Cluny (I would like to see these, actually). But no shipwreck, attack of measles or misunderstanding a brothel for a hostel can deter them from having great fun - and the whole book is breathing that sense of enjoying life we only have when very young adults. I sat several times laughing so hard that tears rolled down my face.
A highly entertaining read for a rainy afternoon, intended for everyone who needs an uplift. Highly recommended! show less
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