BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
l    %& » ANCY HUSTON BANKS (1849-1934), novelist
   __ _   and newspaper woman, was born at Morgantield.
_       2   She was the daughter of Judge George Huston, a
(   ___ `    banker and attorney of Morgantield, and Sarah
*i  J ’“°"°' Brady Huston. After her marriage to James N.
Banks. an attorney and newspaper man of Henderson, she made
her home first in Henderson, and later in Cincinnati, Ohio, where
she was connected with the Cincinnati Enquirer.
In 1890 Mrs. Banks published her first book, Stairs of Sand,
which, it is said, she regretted having written, and later with-
drew from publication. In it she caricatured the people of her
own home town, Morganfield. During the nineties she went to _
live in New York, and there she became a member of the
Bookmavz staff. Mrs. Banks was credited with first bringing the
work of James Lane Allen to the attention of editors. She con-
tributed to the Boolcman (June, 1895) a critical article on the
work of Allen. Several years afterward Mrs. Banks gave up her
magazine work in order to devote her time to the writing of
Oldfield (1902), a novel of life in Kentucky. This "dried rose- »
leaf story" of the Pennyroyal region was popular in its day
both in this country and in England. London critics described
it as Ciranforcl done over in the American tongue. Her next novel,
Round .4i1vilRoz·lc (1903) , was an historical romance with Union _
County scenes as a background. In The Little Hills (1905) the
opening phrase—"The air was the breath of spice pink"—was
said by reviewers to be symbolic of the atmosphere of the
entire story.
Mrs. Banks was a great traveler and spent much of her time
I in England. During the Boer War she was sent by Vanity Fair
of London to South Africa as a war correspondent and became
prominent in the social life there. Mrs. Banks died in Washing-
ton, D. C., in 1934. and was buried in the Masonic Cemetery.
Morganfield, Kentucky.
GEORGE HUSTON CHAPMAN (1849-1914), the son of
Thomas S. and Prudence F. Chapman, was born in Morganfield.
where he obtained his earliest education. Part of his higher edu- ,
cation he received under Dr. C. B. Johnson, a local educator of J