Arthur Meeker, Jr.

Who was Arthur Meeker, Jr.?

Arthur Meeker, Jr. was an American novelist and journalist.

Meeker was born in Chicago to a prominent, wealthy family on November 3, 1902. He had three sisters. His father retired from his position as an executive with Armour & Co. in 1928 and died in 1946. His mother Grace Murray Meeker died in 1948. The family lived on Prairie Avenue and also owned Arcady Farm near Lake Forest. Meeker studied play-writing at Harvard and Princeton, but left without graduating.

He wrote society and travel articles for the Chicago American, the Chicago Daily News, and the Chicago Herald. He achieved critical acclaim as the author of several historical novels, notably The Ivory Mischief, which was a Book of the Month Club selection. Time said "It seems another of those long, thickly upholstered Jumbos of period fiction.... But unlike most books of the type, its re-creation is solid, convincing and intimate, its characterizations are shrewd, its style adult, and even the upholstery is interesting." He wrote two novels set in contemporary Chicago, The Far Away Music and Prairie Avenue, which the New York Times called a "light and colorful entertainment."