Background

Joan Paterson Kerr was born on November 8, 1921 in New Jersey, United States.

Education

Kerr graduated from Vassar College in 1942.

Career

Kerr took a research position for Life magazine. In 1954, she joined the staff of American Heritage as an assistant editor. During her long career with American Heritage, she moved up through the ranks. In 1968 American Heritage Publishing with Kerr as editor, along with Oliver Jensen and Murray Belsky, published American Album. Then she was a founding picture editor of American Heritage magazine. In 1974 Kerr, with Scottie Fitzgerald Smith and Matthew J. Bruccoli, put together a picture book "The Romantic Egoists". She also served as picture editor for The American Past, a series offered by the Book-of-the-Month Club. In 1995 "A Bully Father: Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to His Children" was published; Kerr compiled the letters and wrote the accompanying text. Kerr died at her home in New Haven. She was 75. The cause was cancer.

Achievements

• Kerr is remembered for her work with American Heritage magazine.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Romantic Egoists: A Pictorial Autobiography from the Scrapbooks and Albums of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald
  • The Making of the President 1960 with an Introduction By James Reston
  • American Album
  • A Bully Father

Connections

Joan's husband was Chester, former director of the Yale University Press. Kerr had two daughters, Hilary Mills Loomis and Alley Mills Bean, and a son, Tony Mills. She also had two grandchildren.

husband:

Chester Mills

Daughter:

Hilary Mills Loomis

Daughter:

Alley Mills Bean

Son:

Tony Mills