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Nebraska Authors

Rose C. O'Neill

Born 1874-06-25 Wilkes-Barre, PA (USA)

Died 1944-04-06
Springfield; Bonniebrook(?), MO (USA)

Buried
Bonniebrook, MO (USA)

This author invented the Kewpie Doll in 1908. The dolls were wildly popular in the early twentieth century, and are considered to be one of the first mass-marketed toys in the United States. Kewpie dolls are the subject of many of her books.
Rose O'Neill moved with her family to a sod house on the prairie in 1877. Her father tried to make a living as a book-seller, with little success, and the family eventually moved to Omaha. She did a series of weekly cartoons for the Omaha World Herald. As a teenager, Rose was a gifted artist and began selling her drawings to publications as far away as Denver and Chicago, launching her career as an illustrator. She moved to New York when she was 18 to study drawing at the Convent of the Sisters of St. Regis.

Places Lived

Omaha, NE
Battle Creek, NE
Greenwich Village, NY
Isle of Capri, Italy
Bonniebrook, MO
Pennsylvania
Connecticut

Author Of

  • Fiction
  • Poetry
  • Visual Work

Keywords

Fiction; Children's Fiction; Poetry; Illustrator; Sculptor

Education

Studied drawing at the Convent of the Sisters of St. Regis

Occupation

Actress
Artist

Places Worked

Puck magazine, 1896-1901

Honors

Won an Omaha World Herald art competition at age of 14 with her drawing titled "Temptation Leading Down into an Abyss".

Bibliography

The Loves of Edwy. 1904.
The Lady in the White Veil. 1909.
The Kewpies and Dottie Darling. 1910.
The Kewpies: Their Book. 1911.
Kewpie Paper Doll Books. 1913.
Kewpie Cutouts. 1913.
Kewpie Primer. 1916.
The Master Mistress. 1922.
The Kewpies and the Runaway Baby. 1928.
Garda. 1929.
The Goblin Woman. 1930.
Scootles in Kewpieville. 1936.
Adventures of the Kewpies. 1962.

Illustrated:
The Lions of the Lord by Harry Leon Wilson, 1903.
The Boss of Little Arcady by Harry Leon Wilson, 1905.
Tomorrow's Houseor The Tiny Angel by George O'Neil, 1930.

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Rose C. O'Neill
rose-c-o-neill

Do you have corrections for the above information or other information to add?:

(e.g. Author is buried in Fremont, not in David City / Also wrote for the Daily Nebraskan during her time as a student)