Ardyth Kennelly in the 1990s
Sunnycroft Books is a small publisher in Portland, Oregon, dedicated to bringing out works by or relating to the author and artist Ardyth Kennelly.
Kennelly gained national fame in the 1950s when she published five novels, including the best-sellers The Peaceable Kingdom
(Houghton Mifflin, 1949) and Good Morning, Young Lady
(Houghton Mifflin, 1953). At her death in 2005, she left her final novel, Variation West (Sunnycroft Books, 2014); Bodies Adjacent, a memoir including her husband's journal of 1947-56; New York on $5 a Day, a memoir of her two-year sojourn in New York City (2024); a novel of "millionaire housekeeping" set in early-twentieth-century New York City (forthcoming); a book-length "History of the World"; and some poetry and miscellaneous shorter writings.
"Sunnycroft" was Kennelly's fanciful name for the farmhouse in rural Polk County, Oregon, where she lived from about 1969 to 1972. The house was next to a filbert (hazelnut) orchard, which provided the inspiration for the Sunnycroft Books logo.
For more about Kennelly's life and work, please visit ardythkennelly.com.
Page last revised November 25, 2024