Ronald W. Kenyon

Ronald W. Kenyon, author, educator and lecturer, is the author of thirty-one books, including compilations of essays about France, Florida and the Middle East and ten volumes of photography. Born and raised in Ashland, Kentucky, Kenyon graduated from the University of Michigan where he studied English, French, Spanish and political science. He was awarded two Hopwood creative writing awards and his one-act play, MANSON, was produced. He pursued graduate studies at Stanford and St. Lawrence University and was certified as a French-English liaison interpreter by the U.S. Department of State in 1990. Ronald W. Kenyon spent over half a century living and working in France, Washington, D.C. and Saudi Arabia. MONVILLE: FORGOTTEN LUMINARY OF THE FRENCH ENLIGHTENMENT, his biography of an eighteenth-century French aristocrat, François Racine de Monville (1734-1797), was published in English in 2013 and in French in 2015. As a free-lance Paris-based photographer, Kenyon's works received numerous awards and publications in France. Sixty-five of his photographs of Asir Provence, Saudi Arabia, were exhibited in 1980 and a selection was published in 2020 as ASIR: THE UNKNOWN ARABIA. In 1995, as liaison officer, Kenyon accompanied renowned composer Terence Blanchard and his band on a month-long tour of seven countries of Latin America sponsored by the United States Information Agency. He documented the tour in an essay, "Labios de Fuego," published in STATUES OF LIBERTY: REAL STORIES FROM FRANCE, in 2015. QSL: HOW I TRAVELED THE WORLD AND NEVER LEFT HOME, the first book published anywhere reproducing in color a collection of vintage reception cards from shortwave radio stations around the world, was released in 2020 and reviewed favorably in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Taiwan and Japan. MONEY: PICTURES AND STORIES OF CURRENCY FROM AROUND THE WORLD is a collection of full-color reproductions of 90 banknotes issued by 45 sovereign nations and two multi-national monetary agencies, accompanied by explanatory texts and an eleven-page introduction. FRENCH TELECARTES: BIRTH AND DEATH OF AN EPHEMERAL PHENOMENON is the first book in English to document this quintessentially French phenomenon. It is illustrated in color with more than 250 vintage French phonecards and is accompanied by a 35-page introduction. This book is also available in French as TÉLÉCARTES FRANÇAISES: UNE EPOPÉE ÉPHÉMÈRE. In 2021, Kenyon released a portfolio of his color photographs of the Eiffel Tower at night accompanied by an essay by French novelist and playwright Claire Béchet evoking the Tower, published in English and French editions. Ronald W. Kenyon lives West Palm Beach, Florida, where he continues writing, publishing and lecturing. February 2023