Dorothy Aldis (1896–1966)

Dorothy Keeley Aldis
1896–1966
Novelist, poet, and children’s writer Dorothy Keeley was raised in Chicago, the first of four daughters of a newspaper editor. Educated at Smith College, she married World War I veteran and Chicago realtor Graham Aldis in 1922 and settled with him in Lake Forest, Illinois.

Aldis wrote 29 books during her lifetime, including novels, biographies, and poetry for both adults and children. Her poetry and prose infused the everyday with sympathetic lightness and humor. Her novels for adults include Their Own Apartment (1935) and Time at Her Heels (1937), both set in Depression-era Chicago. Aldis often adopted the perspective of a young speaker in her books for children, which include Hiding (1920), The Boy Who Cared (1956), the biography Nothing is Impossible: The Story of Beatrix Potter (1969), and All Together: A Child’s Treasury of Verse (1952), a collection of her first four volumes of poetry.

She served on the board of directors for the Society of Midland Authors and won the 1966 Children’s Reading Round Table Award. Aldis died at the age of 70 in Lake Forest, Illinois.