Elithe Hamilton Kirkland Papers

Perhaps best known for her bestselling historical romance novel, Love Is a Wild Assault, Elithe Hamilton Kirkland was also a poet, songwriter, playwright, schoolteacher, and journalist. She was born a third generation Texan in 1907, in Coleman, Texas. Both sets of her grandparents were pioneers. Her father was a farmer, and Ms. Kirkland grew up riding a horse to Coleman's one teacher schoolhouse. She was very active in her high school years, participating in the Silver Valley School District debate team, and graduating as Salutatorian in 1924. She then went on to study English and history at North Texas State University, in Denton, Texas, where she received her B.A. and her Teacher's Certificate in 1928.

Kirkland then began her career in writing and teaching with a series of jobs which included teaching high school and writing for newspapers, often at the same time, through the 1930s. From 1928-1929, Kirkland taught high school English, drama, and journalism at Mineral Wells, Texas. At the Coleman Democrat-Voice, Coleman, TX, from 1929-1930, she edited news, features, the editor's front page column, and headlines, many of which dealt with the oil boom and bank robberies. In 1930, Kirkland served as Features writer for the Brady Standard, Brady, TX, researching and photographing major farm and ranch projects in McCulloch County. Also during this time period, from 1930-1932, she taught high school English and journalism in Crane, TX, a ranching center and oil boom town. In 1935, Kirkland served as the Austin correspondent for the Dallas based Texas Weekly. From 1935-1936, she was the State Director of School Publicity (for the Texas Commission for Centennial Celebrations), authoring pamphlets on Texas history and editing the songbook, Songs Texas Sings. From 1937-1939, she was a high school teacher in the State Laboratory School, Iraan, TX, teaching speech arts, journalism, and script writing for radio. Also while at Iraan, she was state correspondent in West Texas for the Fort Worth Star Telegram, writing news stories, often centering on the oil boom.

In 1931, Kirkland married Roy Folk Beal, an interior decorator. A year later, Kirkland's only son was born, James Benjamin Beal. This marriage ended in divorce in 1936. During the summers 1938 of 1939, and during the long term 1939-1940, she was Curriculum Assistant in Department of Educational Administration at the University of Texas at Austin, working with the state on high school curriculum revision. She also attended UT Austin, studying under J. Frank Dobie, and writing a folk-drama series for the Texas State (Radio) Network which was narrated by Dobie. In 1940, she earned a Masters degree from UT Austin in English and Educational Administration.

In the 1940s, Kirkland continued her work as a print journalist, and became very involved in radio journalism. She was the Austin correspondent for the business and financial section of the The Dallas Times Herald,also writing business articles under the name L.E. Hamilton.

From 1940-1947, she was a script writer and acting director for UT Austin's radio department, Radio House, and wrote more than 500 dramatic documentaries for state and national radio networks, many of which were broadcast live from the studios on campus. At the time, Radio House was considered the only complete radio production facility in the southwest. Kirkland traveled to Mexico, among other places, to pursue stories. It was during her tenure at Radio House that Kirkland covered the story of Nazi intrigue surrounding Peck Woodside, an American pilot and businessman in Mexico, a story she would return to again and again over the years.

In 1944, she was the associate editor of Southwest Review, a quarterly publication of University Press in Dallas at Southern Methodist University.

In 1946, she wrote educational film scripts for the Commission on Motion Pictures in New Haven, Conn., including the films "Now is the Seedtime", on Tom Paine, and "Man with a Mission", on Samuel Gompers. In 1948, she married Dr. R. D. (Roy Defoe) Kirkland, an osteopathic surgeon. Also in this year, she mailed her short story "The Realm of Silence" to Pearl Buck, who praised it but described it as ahead of its time and not yet commercially viable. In fact, this story did not come to light until 1984, when it was published as the ending of her novel, The Edge of Disrepute.

As she turned her attention toward creative writing, Kirkland chose Evelyn Oppenheimer, of Dallas, as her literary agent. Oppenheimer helped direct Kirkland to writing historical romance, a genre in which Kirkland would write bestselling novels. Two of these were published in the 1950s, Divine Average(1952) and Love Is A Wild Assault, (1959), the latter being included in A. C. Greene's The 50 Best Books on Texas.

A prolific writer, Kirkland also wrote short stories, songs, poetry, musical dramas, speeches, and television scripts, on a variety of subjects. While her novels tended to be historical romances set in the Republic of Texas era, her other work reflects her broad interests in folk traditions and in the future. She described herself as a "futurist", and often wrote about space travel and parapsychology. She was a member of the Texas State Historical Association, and the national non-denominational Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship of Laymen and Clergymen. In 1982, her short story involving alien kidnapping, The Disappearance of Widow Ellen, was published in a collection of short stories by Texas women writers called Her Work, (Bryan, Texas: Shearer Publishing, 1982).

In 1984, Kirkland's last novel, The Edge of Disrepute, was published. In the next year, her husband, Dr. R.D. Kirkland, passed away, and she moved out of Austin to Wimberley. She published "Leet's Christmas", a Christmas short story including songs and verse. Kirkland remained a very sought after speaker, speaking around the state on the "Texas Voices" program for the Texas Sesquicentennial, as well as for groups such as Daughters of the American Revolution, MENSA, East Texas State University, and Western Writers of America.

In January 1987, her musical drama entitled Precious Memories was performed at the White Elephant in Fort Worth, TX, in collaboration with the Hip Pocket Theater and the Salt Lick Foundation. Kirkland wrote both the drama and lyrics, and acted as narrator. Shortly thereafter, her musical drama, Hear the Flute : An Untold Story of the Civil War in the Western Territories, was performed. Kirkland wrote the script and lyrics, Conrad Fath wrote the music.

On Nov. 12, 1987, Kirkland was inducted into Texas Women's Hall of Fame, one of many honors she received during her lifetime. Kirkland died at her home in Wimberly on Jan. 2, 1992, and was buried in her family cemetery at the David Allen Ranch known as "New Tracks", near the Blanco River, in Kyle, Texas.