Kathrine Gordon Brinley (1878-1966) was born in Brooklyn, NY to William Henry Mellen Sanger and Kate Bayne Ayres Sanger. She was educated at the Low-Heywood School in Stamford, Connecticut and at St.Mary's School in Peekskill, N.Y., and then spent four years in Paris. She married the artist Daniel Putnam Brinley in 1904.

Katherine Brinley started as a writer, but felt another calling, and in 1921 contracted with professional management to give dramatic presentations in costume of Chaucer's poetry around the country, using the pen name Gordon Brinley. Beginning in 1934, she also wrote a series of travel books. She was a member of various women's clubs, and was elected president of the Connecticut Branch of the National League of American Pen Women in 1934. She was a resident of New Canaan, Connecticut.

Series I: Background:

--Correspondence dealing with the collection

Series II: Chronological ordering of items about Brinley's Chaucer presentations:

--1919-1921, with notes and sketches of costumes
--1922
--1923-1924
--1925-1926 Trip to Europe
--1926
--1927-1928
--1928-1932
--1933-1934
--1934-1936
--1937-1957

Series III: Manuscript works by Gordon Brinley:

--Notes on Troilus and Criseyde
--The Chaucer Playbook: Six Entertainments
--Troilus and Criseyde
--Odyssey: A Novel in Letters
--Iona: A Story in Verse. (Folder also includes other untitled writings)

Series IV: Notes:

--On Chaucer Programs
--On Chaucer
--Of her own writings
--On English Literature and Background
--Miscellaneous

Series V: Ephemera and Recordings

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Inventory prepared by Susan Spitler, August 1989.
Prepared for electronic publication by Michael J. Breen '99, July 1999.