Kendrick, Baynard

Baynard Hardwick Kendrick was an American author born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a wealthy family. After graduating from the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia in 1912, he worked in the family business until he became the first American to sign up for the Canadian Army at the outbreak of the First World War. He then served as an infantryman in France and England. When one of his friends was blinded in the war Kendrick was impressed by how well he and other blinded soldiers dealt with daily life, and it became a life-long interest. He was an instructor and councillor for blind veterans during the Second World War, which inspired his perhaps best-known novel Lights Out (1945). He was also the only sighted member of the international Blinded Veterans Association, which he co-founded in 1945.