The Wilmington morning star., 1943-12-12
Miss WOrth's New Book
Will Be Displayed Here
Native OF City Among
lie a ding Children's
Writers OF Day

One of the most recognized chill
c,en's writers of today, a poet
who has published in the best
raonthlies, and one of the staunch-
est champions of the sturdy folk
who have populated the Cape Fear
Valley section for generations is
Kathryn Worth, native of Will
mington.
Miss Worth. daughter of James
Spencer Worth, granddaughter OF
David Castor Worth, and a great
granddaughter Of North Carolina
Governor Jonathan Worth, is the
author of a new work, Poems for
Josephine, published by Double
day Doran. The lovely little vol
lme is the center of feature dis
play to be arranged in the North
Carolina room of the Public Lii
brary this week.
Kathryn Worth left this city
when she was a child not long af-
ier the death of her young father.
She was taken to Switzerland by
her mother, her cousin, Mrs. Ben
Washburn of Glen Arden recalled
Saturday. Then she lived the rest
of her childhood n Davidson.
Mrs. Walter Sprunt and Mrs.
George Mitchell are also cousins
of the author.)
Perhaps kathryn Worth's story
and her philosophy may be most
effectively told in her own words:
Il was born in Wilmington,
North Carolina, in 1885,
From the age of seven, I wrote
,.cetry. When 1 was twelve, my
entire family went abroad to live
for two years in Europe. After
ward, | attended three colleges:
receiving an A. B. from Converse
college, B. Lit from the Pulitzer
School of Journalism, and gradu-
ale credits for enc year at Rad
c;,tfe. All this time | continued to
write poetry. My work was pub
,ished in most of the leading jour-
1.als and magazines and neWspa-
rers, including h Atlantic
Monthly, Harpe: s magazine, the
New York Republic, the American
Mercury, the Virginia Quarterly
Review. the New York Times, and
others. In 1887 a volume of my col
.ected poems was published by
the firm of Alfred A. Knopf, under
the title Sign of Capricornus.'
I'm 1927 l married Walter Clyde
Curry, professor of English at
Vanderbilt university, Nashville.
Tenn, distinguished mediaevalist
end author of TWO scholarly vol
umes). 1 have one child, a daugh-
ter, Josephine, fourteen years old.
My interest in juvenile writing
came about through my desire to
write things intriguing to my own
little daughter. When she was six
years old, 1 started writing poems
ard stories for Ter. She took enor-
NOUS pleasure in this joint amuse-
ment of ours. She would suggest
10 me what she wanted poem
Wy, itten about: maybe swans or
ducks, o rgees, or elephants or
snow or grass. I would write the
poem. If she liked it, l knew it
vas successful. If she said, I don't
like that poem, then I threw it
away. During the last five years,
oetween fifty and sixty of these
poems have been published in first
class juvenile magazines. Many
have been reproduced in antholo-
gies.
Recently, my daughter wished
me to write a novel for her. !
wrote The Midale Button All my
life I had been ardently devoted
to the stories about my Scotch
Presbyterian grandfather anc
grandmother and their family Of
IL blue-eyed children. This seem
ed to me the time to write book
about them. 1 wrote the book tt
please myself and to please my
daughter.
Il also wished to commemorate
the lives of those sturdy, moral
highly-educated, God fearing
Healthy Scotch ancestors of mine
I am sick unto death of the novels
ABOUT the South IN which the res
Of the world is led to believe tina
the South is exclusively inhabited
by decadent pelverts, down-trod
zen pore white trash, negroes OF
the verge of being lynched a
dawn each day, or mint juler
drinking old southern colonies OF
the porches of white-pillard man
sjons.
1.-THE South I know best is the