{{Infobox person | name = Ken Purdy | image = <!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing brackets --> | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date =28 April 1913 | birth_place = Chicago, Illinois | death_date = {{Death date and age|7 June 1972|28 April 1913}} | death_place = Wilton, Connecticut | other_names = | occupation = Writer and editor | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }}
'''Kenneth William Purdy''' (April 28, 1913 – June 7, 1972)<ref name="findagrave"/> was an American automotive writer and editor.
He was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1913, and raised mostly in Auburn, New York, by his mother after his father, songwriter William Thomas Purdy (1882–1918) (''On, Wisconsin!'') died when Ken was only six. Ken graduated in 1934 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Soon after he got his first newspaper job with the Athol, Massachusetts ''Daily News''. From there he went to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to the Chicago Radio Guide, to associate editor of ''Look'', and to the United States Office of War Information as editor of ''Victory'' during World War II. He was an editor at ''Parade'', ''Car and Driver'', ''Argosy'' and ''True'' magazines between the late '40s and mid '50s. He wrote articles and fiction under the pseudonym Karl Prentiss.
Purdy's main interests were automobiles and the people who drove them. Among other works, he produced 35 short stories and scores of automotive pieces for ''Playboy''. He won Playboy's annual writers' award three times. His ''Kings of the Road'', published in 1952, is still a landmark.
Purdy died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on June 7, 1972, in Wilton, Connecticut.<ref name="cd-feb2005"/>
The International Motor Press Association presents the annual ''Ken W. Purdy Award'' <ref name="impa-award"/> to a writer for an outstanding body of work or a specific piece of work that deals with the automotive world.
==References== <references>
<ref name="findagrave">{{cite web |date= |url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120064702 |title=Kenneth William Purdy |website=www.findagrave.com }}</ref>
<ref name="cd-feb2005">{{cite web |url=http://www.caranddriver.com/anniversary/9015/looking-back-at-the-best-of-car-and-driver.html |title=Looking Back at the Best of Car and Driver - 50th Anniversary - The 1950s |date=February 2005 |access-date=6 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929083105/http://www.caranddriver.com/anniversary/9015/looking-back-at-the-best-of-car-and-driver.html |archive-date=29 September 2007}}</ref>
<ref name="impa-award">{{cite web |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date= |url=http://www.impa.org/ken_purdy_award.cfm |title=Ken W. Purdy Award |website=www.impa.org}}</ref>
</references>
==External links== *{{cite web |url=http://www.insmkt.com/stirlingmoss.htm/ |title=ALL BUT MY LIFE by Ken Purdy |date= |access-date=6 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110325075436/http://www.insmkt.com/stirlingmoss.htm/ |archive-date=25 March 2011}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Purdy, Ken}} Category:1913 births Category:1972 suicides Category:1972 deaths Category:Motoring journalists Category:Motoring writers Category:Journalists from Chicago Category:People of the United States Office of War Information Category:Suicides by firearm in Connecticut