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Jean Kenyon Mackenzie

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Jean Kenyon Mackenzie
A white woman against a dark background. Her hair is center-parted and drawn back. She is wearing a high-collared white lacy blouse with a cameo at the throat, and a lace-trimmed dark overdress.
Jean Kenyon Mackenzie, from a 1918 newspaper.
BornJanuary 6, 1874
Elgin, Illinois
DiedSeptember 2, 1936
New York City
Other namesJean K. Mackenzie
Occupation(s)Writer, Presbyterian missionary

Jean Kenyon Mackenzie (January 6, 1874 – September 2, 1936) was an American writer and Presbyterian missionary in West Africa.

Early life

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Jean Kenyon Mackenzie was born in Elgin, Illinois, the daughter of Robert Mackenzie and Lydia Ann McLeod Mackenzie.[1] Her father was born in Scotland and was a Presbyterian clergyman.[2] She went to school at Van Ness Seminary in San Francisco, the Sorbonne, and the University of California at Berkeley, graduating from the last in 1896.[3] She was on the editorial staff on the college newspaper, The Occident, and wrote poems published there.[4] She also earned a graduate degree at Smith College.[5]

Career

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Mackenzie was a missionary teacher in West Africa from 1904 to 1914,[6] under the auspices of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church (USA).[5] She was based in Lolodorf and Efoulan in German-occupied Kamerun, and at Baraka Station in French-occupied Gabon.[3] She retired from the mission field for health reasons in 1914, but returned to Cameroon during World War I, as a diplomat working with missionaries, the Bulu people, and the French government.[5]

Mackenzie wrote short stories, poems, and articles, published in American periodicals including the Atlantic Monthly[7][8] Overland Monthly,[9] and The Perry Magazine.[10][11][12][13] After her missionary years, she also wrote books,[14] many of them intended for young readers or church study groups,[15][16] including Black Sheep: Adventures in West Africa (1916),[17] An African Trail (1917),[18] African Adventurers (1917),[19] The Story of a Fortunate Youth (1920),[20] African Lanterns (1920),[21] African Clearings (1924),[22] The Black Pioneer (1924; she wrote the introduction),[23] The Venture (1925, a collection of poems), A Lucky Lad (1926),[24] Friends of Africa (1928), and The Trader's Wife (1930, a novel).[3][25]

In 1923, Mackenzie was appointed to the Board of Foreign Missions, and represented the board at a mission conference in Belgium.[5] She was also a popular lecturer to church and women's groups.[2][26]

Personal life

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Mackenzie died in 1936, aged 62 years, at her sister's home in New York City.[1] Her papers are in the collection of the Presbyterian Historical Society. A short biography of Mackenzie appeared as a daily devotional in A Year with American Saints (2006).[27]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Jean K. Mackenzie, Author, Dies at 62; Writer on Africa, Where She was Missionary". Times Union. 1936-09-03. p. 20. Retrieved 2021-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ a b "Famous Missionary and Writer to Talk". Democrat and Chronicle. 1918-09-21. p. 16. Retrieved 2021-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b c Horner, Norman A. "Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon" in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 425.
  4. ^ Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (March 12, 1896). "At Dawn and The Latent (two poems)". Occident. 30: 87.
  5. ^ a b c d "Jean Kenyon Mackenzie and the "Tribe of God"". Presbyterian Historical Society. March 11, 2013. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
  6. ^ Piper, Jean (1926-01-03). "Woman Who Has Labored Among Real African Cannibals Describes Native Fashions". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. p. 74. Retrieved 2021-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (November 1922). "The Silver Cup". The Atlantic Monthly. 130: 608–618.
  8. ^ Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (December 1922). "The Empty House, The Trodden Ways, The Name, The White Man's Dream, The Dawn". The Atlantic Monthly. 130: 788–790.
  9. ^ Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (January 1899). "Indian Pink". Overland Monthly. 33: 121.
  10. ^ Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (September 1899). "A Camp of Long Ago". The Perry Magazine. 2: 28–29.
  11. ^ Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (March 1900). "Goldsmiths and Painters". The Perry Magazine. 2: 320–321.
  12. ^ Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (October 1903). "The Sack of Dinant". The Perry Magazine. 6: 54–57.
  13. ^ Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (December 1903). "Saint Nicholas and the Cups". The Perry Magazine. 6: 151–152.
  14. ^ "Jean Kenyon Mackenzie (1874-1936)". The Online Books Page. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
  15. ^ Millikin, B. Carter (August 1917). "New United Study Books". Woman's Work. 32: 174–175.
  16. ^ "Study Books on Africa". Missionary Review of the World. 30: 480. June 1917.
  17. ^ Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (1916). Black sheep: Adventures in West Africa. Houghton Mifflin Company, Riverside Press Cambridge. hdl:2027/nyp.33433068286016.
  18. ^ Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (1917). An African trail. West Medford, Mass.: The Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions. hdl:2027/hvd.ah5scc.
  19. ^ Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (1917). African adventurers. West Medford, Mass.: The Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions. hdl:2027/mdp.39015011416347.
  20. ^ Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (1920). The story of a fortunate youth;chapters from the biography of an elderly gentleman. Boston: The Atlantic Monthly Press. hdl:2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t59c73p4j.
  21. ^ Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (1920). African Lanterns: Sketches Written and Collected. Woman's Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.
  22. ^ Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (1924). African clearings. Boston and New York. hdl:2027/uc1.$b296300.
  23. ^ Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (1924). The black pioneer. New York: The Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. hdl:2027/nnc2.ark:/13960/t6b34bv6b.
  24. ^ Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon (1926). A Lucky Lad. M. Hopkinson.
  25. ^ "'The Trader's Wife' An Amazing Novel". Hartford Courant. 1930-03-16. p. 72. Retrieved 2021-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ "Miss Mackenzie Lecture". The Montclair Times. 1918-11-09. p. 6. Retrieved 2021-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ^ Cady, G. Scott; Webber, Christopher L. (2006). Year with American Saints. Church Publishing, Inc. p. 449. ISBN 978-0-89869-798-8.
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