An Evening with Sophie Kerr

Though Sophie Kerr is most known on Washington College’s campus for her endowment which funds the largest undergraduate literary prize in the United States, she was an accomplished woman with many interests.

A prolific fiction writer who wrote 23 novels and hundreds of short stories during her lifetime, Kerr was also a gourmand who loved entertaining and the holidays.

In 1956, Kerr co-authored a cookbook with June Platt, entitled “The Best I ever Ate.” Some of the chapters are dedicated to specific types of food- bread, pie, vegetables- while other chapters are centered on entertaining guests. Chapter Nine, called “Dinner at Eight, for Eight,” highlights Chicken Tavern Royale and Watercress and Endive Salad, dishes for guests that make up a “simple dinner to get and a delicious one to eat.” On the other hand is Chapter 2, “The Dinners to Which We Are Not Invited,” which includes such simple and homely items as Broiled Beef Patties and Fish Cakes. The text in this chapter makes clear that while Sophie Kerr loves these comfort-food dishes, they are not to be served to guests.

Her love of the holidays is made apparent by articles she wrote later in life. In 1966, Kerr contributed an essay about Thanksgiving to the third edition of Woman’s Day Encyclopedia of Cookery. Kerr recalls the lavish Thanksgivings of her childhood on the Eastern Shore fondly, stating, “it was a peaceful and decorous feast, shared in thankful affection.”

The Washington College Archives houses an unpublished and undated essay by Kerr that showcases her fondness for Christmas. In “I Remember Christmas,” Kerr writes that “the holiday week between Christmas and New Years is usually marked by a constant informal hospitality,” with old friends and neighbors stopping by the house in a steady stream. Ever the gracious hostess, Kerr “serve[d] each visitor with at least three kinds of cake and a cup of some kind of special cheer. If you want to learn more about the woman behind the literary prize, please join editor, writer, and journalist Brooke Shultz ’18 for her talk “An In-Depth Look at the Life and Career of Sophie Kerr” on Wednesday, February 8, 2023 at 4:30pm in the John S. Toll Science Center, Litrenta Auditorium.