Publishing the late-life works of Oregon author Ardyth Kennelly
Page last revised October 24, 2023
What people are saying about Variation West:
"Found treasure: Ardyth Kennelly's unique voice—
wry, compassionate, evocative—is back! With telling detail, her memorable characters invite readers into a life that is both 'other' and familiar. Her powerful, highly original writing rewards those who come looking for literary gold."
Rosalie Maggio, author of How to Say It
"Every one of the 760 pages is worth savoring."
Ann Chamberlin, Historical Novel Society review
"Kennelly's style is offbeat, but it's richly rewarding. . . . Anyone interested in Western or Mormon history, fans of family sagas, or readers tired of lightweight genre fiction and wanting something to sink their teeth into will enjoy Variation West."
B. J. Sedlock, Metadata and Archives Librarian, Defiance College / Feature writer and reviewer for the Historical Novel Society
"Vastly enjoyable . . . fascinating . . . wonderful characters."
Peggy, Goodreads reviewer
Ardyth Kennelly at home in Portland, Oregon, in the 1990s
(photo courtesy of Scott & Julie Fisher)
Copyright 2014-23 Sunnycroft Books. All rights reserved.
Seven decades after Ardyth Kennelly delighted readers with her best-selling books of the 1950s, Sunnycroft Books is pleased to be publishing the works that she wrote later in her life.
Variation West (2014) is a sweeping novel that covers not only a century of Western life and history, but also the vast territory of the human heart. It's an immense literary collage, with dozens of engaging characters and a wealth of both comic and tragic stories to tell. We see not only the humor and heartaches of domestic life under Mormon polygamy, but also the sacrifices—including death and disfigurement—that women make in trying to fulfill society's expectations of female beauty; the unspeakable violence that men do; and how patterns laid down in the distant past resurface again and again.
Bodies Adjacent: Ardyth's Memoir & Egon's Journal (2023) is Ardyth Kennelly's story of her life with her husband, the Jewish Viennese physician Egon V. Ullman. In the middle of her memoir, Ardyth places the journal that Egon kept from 1947 to 1956, during the years that Ardyth was writing and publishing her books. Bodies Adjacent is a captivating and singular love story—painfully honest, yet utterly enchanting and sweet.
A second memoir, New York on $5 a Day (forthcoming from Sunnycroft Books) is an account of the two years she spent in New York City in 1963-64. Also forthcoming is a novel of "millionaire housekeeping" set in New York City of the early twentieth century.
For more about Ardyth Kennelly's life and work, please click here.