Kaye, Myrna 1930–

PERSONAL: Born October 18, 1930, in Brooklyn, NY; daughter of Max J. (a government appraiser) and Zelda R. (Caspe) Hechel; married Murray Kaye (an electronics engineer), June 8, 1952; children: Sharon, David, Stephen. Education: Brooklyn College (now Brooklyn College of the City University of New York), A.B. (cum laude), 1952. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES: Home—Lexington, MA 02173. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Little, Brown and Company, 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

CAREER: Educator and writer. Elementary school teacher in public school in Aberdeen, MD, 1952–53; Mount Ida Junior College, Newton Centre, MA, instructor in decorative arts history, beginning 1972. Adjunct lecturer at Boston Museum of Fine Arts, beginning 1973.

WRITINGS:

(Contributor) Walter Muir Whitehill, editor, Boston Furniture of the Eighteenth Century, University Press of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA), 1974.

Yankee Weathervanes, Dutton (New York, NY), 1975.

(With Brock Jobe) New England Furniture: The Colonial Era: Selections from the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1984.

Fake, Fraud, or Genuine?: Identifying Authentic American Antique Furniture, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1987.

There's a Bed in the Piano: The Inside Story of the American Home, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1998.

Contributor of monthly column, "Antiques to look for …," to Yankee, 1966–69.

SIDELIGHTS: Myrna Kaye told CA: "I wrote Yankee Weathervanes because the ubiquitous vanes atop all types of buildings reflected the interests of the entire society. The varied subjects of vanes showed the interests of all the people, rich and poor, urban and rural, commercial and religious. Furniture too allows us to look at history, not merely as battles fought or laws passed, but as lived by people every day."

The author's extensive writings about furniture and antiques include her 1998 book There's a Bed in the Piano: The Inside Story of the American Home. This time the author looks at how the inside of the American home has evolved over the years by focusing on its furniture, various rooms and their functions, and other influences such as regional styles and diverse population. For example, the title comes from an actual piece of furniture in which a piano not only contained a bed but also two small closets, a washbasin, and a chest of drawers. Writing in Magazine Antiques, Alfred Mayor commented on the author's "leisurely ruminations that make this book such a pleasure to dip into." A Publishers Weekly contributor noted that the author offers a "detailed historical perspective."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 1, 1975, review of Yankee Weathervanes, p. 214.

Choice, November, 1975, review of Yankee Weathervanes, p. 1154.

Fessenden Review, annual, 1989, review of Fake, Fraud, or Genuine?: Identifying Authentic American Antique Furniture, p. 8.

Library Journal, September 15, 1975, review of Yankee Weathervanes, p. 1619; February 1, 1985, Paul von Khrum, review of New England Furniture: The Colonial Era: Selections from the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, p. 90.

Magazine Antiques, January, 1976, review of Yankee Weathervanes, p. 196; May, 1986, Richard H. Randall Jr., review of New England Furniture, p. 972; February, 1999, Alfred Mayor, review of There's a Bed in the Piano: The Inside Story of the American Home, p. 258.

New York Times Book Review, May 15, 1998, Rita Reif, review of Fake, Fraud, or Genuine?, p. 26.

Publishers Weekly, September 7, 1998, review of There's a Bed in the Piano, p. 77.

Reference & Research Book News, August, 1998, review of Fake, Fraud, or Genuine?, p. 22.

Studies in the Decorative Arts, spring, 2000, review of There's a Bed in the Piano, p. 150.