Archival ResourcesKroman, Edna
Literary Manuscripts, circa 1920s and 1960s
Biography/Background:
Maxwell
and Jennie S. Kroman moved to Birmingham, Alabama in 1897 and opened a dry
goods
store in downtown Birmingham the following year. In 1904, the Kroman family
(Max, Jennie, son Louis,
daughters Minnie, Naomi, Cecile, and Edna, and Sadie Kroman, possibly a sister
of Max's) moved to 1609
8th Avenue North where they lived for fourteen years. In 1918, Edna
was also a stenographer for Sharp &
Company.
In 1924 the Kromans moved to 1327 31st Street South. In the years that followed,
Cecile (also spelled
Secile) worked as an artist, her sister Naomi worked as an accountant at General
Motors, and Edna was a
reporter for the Birmingham News. A draft for an article on the
Birmingham Amateur Movie Association dates
from this period. At some time during the late 1920s Edna attended Barnard
College. Several of her plays and
short stories were submitted as class assignments.
In 1953, Edna Kroman opened the Junior Shop in Homewood. She operated this shoe store for
almost
10 years before opening Edmans Shoes in Mountain Brook. The next year she left
the store and returned to her
original ambition of being a writer. She wrote articles for the Birmingham
News in the mid-1960s, and several
of her magazine submissions bear the 31st Street address.
Max Kroman
died November 20, 1965. His daughters continued to live on 31st
Street until 1970 when
they moved to an apartment on Highland Avenue. In 1983, Naomi and Edna moved to
the Park Tower
Condominiums at 2717 Highland Avenue. Naomi died the following year in
September; Edna died January 7,
1985. She was ninety years old. The Kroman family belonged to Temple Beth-El,
and Edna is buried in
Knesseth-Israel Cemetery.
Source:
Birmingham
City Directory. Birmingham: R. L. Polk and Company, 1897 - 1985.
Scope and Content:
This
collection largely consists of rough drafts and typescripts of articles,
stories, and plays by Kroman,
written in the 1920s and 1960s. Several of the folders contain rejection slips
from Harper's, Atlantic Monthly,
and The Saturday Evening Post.
Kroman's
works often concern social issues, such as the education of women, the role of
women in
society, and anti-Semitism.
Guide to Collection:
File level
guide available in the Archives Department.
Subject Areas:
Authors --
Alabama -- Birmingham.
Birmingham
Amateur Movie Association.
Jewish
literature.
Jews --
Alabama -- Birmingham.
Kroman, Edna,
1895-1985.
Women --
Alabama -- Birmingham.
Women in
literature.
Collection Number: 628
Size: ˝ linear foot (1 box)
Restrictions: Standard preservation and copyright restrictions.
|
