Elizabeth Vernon Quinn

Elizabeth Vernon Quinn is the woman responsible for the final edition of The Ghosts of My Friends, published by Frederick A. Stokes Company in 1938. In that edition she uses the pen name Capini Vequin.

Quinn was a prolific writer and editor with over 30 books to her name, though likely much more was written as a ghost writer. Throughout her career, Quinn wrote under several names, each aimed at a specific audience, and each, mostly, during specific times in her career. 

Early in her writing career, she wrote for young children. Books of fairy tales and other stories. Probably the most famous being the Kewpie Primer. These books took up the first seven years of her publishing career. 

In 1923 she publishes Beautiful America, a book about the major landmarks and scenery of the United States, under the name Vernon Quinn. From here on, she uses this name for the may geographic and educational books, including a series of books on plants and gardening. 

When she does dip back into a more youthful focus, for books about games and puzzles (and The Ghosts of My Friends), she uses Capini Vequin, the surname an obvious play on V Quinn 

No matter the name, her writing usually was often for younger audiences, though she never had children of her own nor did she marry. Instead, her books about geography and exploration drove the imagination of children across the country and her books on plants, seeds, and leaves found their way on to many of our parents' and grandparents' shelves.

Personal Life

Elizabeth Vernon Quinn was born on 5 January 1880 or 1881. When Elizabeth was five, her mother died and her father followed five years later. Quinn's father, William Thomas Quinn, was a Methodist reverend from Maryland who traced his roots back to the earliest colonists. According to her obituary in the New York Times, she went to one year of college at the now defunct University of Nashville before going to teach at a log cabin in Cloyd's Mountain, Virginia. In 1905 (at the age of 25) she began working for Frederick A. Stokes Company where she was an editor. 

Quinn worked at Stokes from 1905 through 1941, taking a small break from 1918 to 1923 to travel to Europe with the YMCA to support US troops on the front and, later, in occupied Germany. By 1921, the AFG (American Forces in Germany) started leaving the occupied area. Quinn applied for a US passport to travel Europe for a year with stated locations to visit listed on her passport application as Belgium and France for YMCA work and Switzerland, Great Britain, Spain, and Holland for travel.

Quinn would have been present at Stokes while they were publishing the early versions of The Ghosts of My Friends, arranged by Cecil Henland, between 1900 and 1925. It's impossible to know, but it's an intriguing thought to ponder that perhaps Quinn met Cecil in England during her travels. 

Genealogical research shows she had four brothers and one sister, and she would eventually have a large extended family with five or six nieces and nephews and at least one grandniece. Many of these names turn up in the dedication pages of her over 30 published books, most of which focus on young adult audiences. And one dedication to a D'alary Fechét, Major, US Army, a few short years after returning from Europe. Fechét was stationed in Germany with the AFG while Quinn was there. He died unmarried and childless on 24 September 1965. 

Quinn wasn't the only one of her siblings to venture into publishing. Between 1920 and 1930, Quinn's brother William changed careers from real estate to publishing and joined Quinn living in New York.

She lived in New York City for most of her life (listing the Stokes company as her address on both her 1918 and 1921 passport applications), but moved to Stormville, NY, around 1952. She lived there the next 10 years working as an editor, translator, compiler, and ghost writer. She died on 21 Match 1962 and is buried at Beekman Cemetery in Poughquag, New York, USA.