Author Muriel Caldwell Pilley’s New Book, "Drum Mountain Tales and Plays," is a Series of Stories and Plays Based on the Author’s Experiences in Twentieth-Century China

New York, NY, February 07, 2024 --(PR.com)-- Muriel Caldwell Pilley’s book, “Drum Mountain Tales and Plays,” published posthumously, is a collection of stories and plays based on the author’s experiences as a child in China and later as an educator and missionary in the first half of the Twentieth century. The stories were compiled and edited by the author’s daughter, Gail Pilley Harris. Muriel’s own story is recorded in the recent book, “Daughter of Drum Mountain.”

Born in Fujian, China, to Methodist missionaries who served for forty-three years in that country, author Muriel Caldwell Pilley completed her education at Oberlin College in Ohio, graduating magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with a degree in English literature. After graduation, she returned to China as a contract teacher. There she met and married her husband, John Pilley, the son of missionaries. They taught together at the Shanghai American School and the Anglo Chinese College in Fuzhou, before becoming educational missionaries first in China, then in Sarawak, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo.

In 1946, while on furlough, Muriel completed her studies for her master’s degree at Peabody and Scarritt Colleges in Nashville. She used her education and background to write stories of China, Alaska, and Borneo. She was also a playwright, and many of her plays were often performed by her students. Some were just for entertainment, but most of them told the Christian story. At times, she translated Shakespearean plays into Chinese, the funds from ticket sales going to support mission projects.

“When my mother, Muriel Pilley, died in 2002, I inherited her vast accumulation of stories, journals, documents, and pictures,” writes Gail. “For several years, I did nothing with them, and they languished in boxes in my closets. Eventually, I started to file the correspondence in chronological order and filled many three-ring binders with letters starting in 1928—the year my mother was a senior at Oberlin College. Other binders were filled with historical documents and family histories. Altogether I have twenty-seven three-ring binders of history and my mother’s personal journals dating to 1927…”

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