1918-1994
Mrs. Yeo served as an inspiring mentor and helpful critic for the Kansas City Writers Group and also taught the Kansas City Juvenile Writers Group from 1967 to 1990.

“A pinch of humor added to a truth sometimes makes Wisdom.”
My inner Peers are Children.”
–Wilma Yeo

She was the author of some ten published works in both prose and poetry. They include picture books for children, mystery books for pre-teens, and a biography of Thomas Hart Benton written with Helen K. Cook. Her works include Mrs. Neverbody’s Recipes, 1968; Mystery of the Third Twin, 1972; Oliver Twister and His Big Little Sister, 1973; Maverick With a Paint Brush; The story of Thomas Hart Benton, 1977; Gypsy Summer, 1986; Girl in The Window, 1988, and Stranger at Winfield House, 1989.

Edgar Wolfe Literary Award 1992

The Friends of the Library in KCK present the Edgar Wolfe Literary Award 1992

Presented March 22, 1992
Born in Republican City, Nebraska in 1918, Wilma Yeo grew up in Maryville, Missouri. She attended Kansas City Missouri Junior College and the University of Kansas City (now, University of Missouri at Kansas City) and was a resident of Kansas City, Missouri. Ms. Yeo died in 1994.

Mrs. Yeo was a volunteer elementary school librarian and a fiction editor for an arts magazine formerly published in Kansas City, Missouri. For more than twenty years, Mrs. Yeo taught creative writing workshops in the Continuing Education program through the University of Missouri at Kansas City. She also taught creative writing for both adults and children at both Avila College in Kansas City, Missouri and at the Johnson County Community College in Johnson County, Kansas. She served as an inspiring mentor and helpful critic for the Kansas City Writers Group and also taught the Kansas City Juvenile Writers Group from 1967 to 1990.

Mrs. Yeo was the author of some ten published works in both prose and poetry. They include picture books for children, mystery books for pre-teens, and a biography of Thomas Hart Benton written with Helen K. Cook. Her works include Mrs. Neverbody’s Recipes, 1968; Mystery of the Third Twin, 1972; Oliver Twister and His Big Little Sister, 1973; Maverick With a Paint Brush; The story of Thomas Hart Benton, 1977; Gypsy Summer, 1986; Girl in The Window, 1988, and Stranger at Winfield House, 1989.

Edgar Wolfe

Edgar Wolfe was born on August 27, 1906, in Ottawa, Kansas. He earned a B.A. in English from the University of Kansas in 1928, and taught for some years in the rural high schools of Stoneville and Weta, South Dakota.
During the Great Depression, Wolfe was a social worker in Kansas City, Kansas. This experience provided him with a rich lode of insight for his first novel, Widow Man. A novella, Trial by Ice, published in 1961, also dealt with Wolfe’s inner-city experiences.

In 1947, Wolfe returned to the University of Kansas, where he earned his M.A. in 1948. He remained at KU to teach creative writing for several decades. In his teaching, as in his creative work, Wolfe emphasized realism of detail in both setting and character and, above all, the integrity of literature as a craft.

After retirement from the University of Kansas in 1977, Wolfe returned once more to live in Kansas City, Kansas, where his wife, Marguerite, was a school librarian. He continued to write for the Kansas Alumni magazine and, in 1986, published a collection of stories, To All the Islands Now.

A special issue of Cottonwood magazine was dedicated to Wolfe in the winter of 1986. In 1987, the Friends of the Library in Kansas City, Kansas hosted a reading by Wolfe.

After his death in 1989, Wolfe’s extensive papers and manuscripts were accepted by the Kansas Collection of the University of Kansas Library. A volume of his poetry, The Almond Tree, was published by Woodley Press in 1989.
To honor the late Kansas City, Kansas author and teacher Edgar Wolfe, the Friends of the Library in Kansas City, Kansas established the annual Edgar Wolfe Literary Award.

As a public service organization dedicated to promoting the literary excellence and integrity taught by Edgar Wolfe, the Kansas City, Kansas Public Library presents public programs that offer aspiring writers opportunities to expand and enhance their literary skills.

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