13 Facts About Henry Bellamann

Heinrich Hauer Bellamann was an American author, whose bestselling 1940 novel Kings Row exposed the hypocrisy of small-town life in the midwest, addressing many social taboos.

Research suggested that Henry Bellamann was working off resentment of his upbringing in Fulton, Missouri, where he had been ostracised for his German extraction and rumoured illegitimacy.

Henry Bellamann was a poet and a music professor at Vassar College.

Henry Bellamann was born in Fulton, Missouri in 1882 to parents George Henrik and Caroline Henry Bellamann.

Henry Bellamann met his future wife, Katherine McKee Jones, while both were teaching at a girls' academy in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

From 1907 to 1932, when he began to pursue writing full-time, Henry Bellamann held administrative and teaching positions at several educational institutions, including acting director of the Juilliard Musical Foundation, dean of the Curtis Institute of Music, and professor of music at Vassar College.

Henry Bellamann served as editor for the music magazine Overtones and wrote a weekly literary column, in which he highlighted the works of DuBose Heyward and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Julia Peterkin.

The story of Drake McHugh and his best friend Parris Mitchell coming of age in a sleepy midwest American town of the 1890s was by far Henry Bellamann's most recognized work.

Henry Bellamann often was made to feel alienated there because of his German heritage.

Interviews with his few childhood friends confirmed that Henry Bellamann was regarded as a social outcast in the town.

Henry Bellamann began a sequel to Kings Row but died of a heart attack in their New York City home in June 1945 before its completion.

Katherine Henry Bellamann survived her husband by 11 years, dying in 1956.

Henry Bellamann received the Legion d'Honneur from the Republic of France and an honorary musical doctorate from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.