About the Author

Anastasia Kirby served as assistant director of the Red Cross wartime Blood Donor Center of Boston during World War II. In collaboration with Lt. Henry W. Lundquist, USNR, radio officer of the Public Relations Office of the First Naval District and blood donor officer for the headquarters, she created and wrote a radio series called Life to the Front. It was broadcast weekly through the Columbia Broadcasting System's New England outlet, WEEI in Boston. Out for Blood, her book about World War II, completed in 2014, combines her experiences with both the blood donors and the survivors whom she interviewed on her broadcasts. Before and after the war, she wrote for print, broadcast, and performance. Her Christmas book for children, A Dream of Christmas Eve, published in 1937 and reissued for a fiftieth anniversary in 1987, is still sought by new generations. A collection of character sketches, which she writes for her own performances, has been featured on radio, television, and stage. She has owned a bookstore, lectured on books, and served as Book Fair radio editor. Although essentially a creative writer, she has been tapped for historic pieces, such as A Newton Sampler for the 1973 bicentennial of the city of Newton, Massachusetts, and The Chapel Speaks for the restoration for Emmanuel College's historic chapel. She received a bachelor of arts degree from Emmanuel College in 1935 and a doctor of humane letters, honora causa, in 2005. In 1944 she married Lieutenant Lundquist in a formal Navy wedding. They had three children, two sons who are retired Navy captains and a daughter who is an artist-musician-educator. Before her husband's death in 2003, they divided their time between two old houses in Massachusetts: an 1857 in Newton and an 1830 in Harwich on Cape Cod. With Out for Blood complete, she is now turning her attention to two works in progress, a novel and another Christmas book.