Bob Kelly

BOB KELLY began his freelance writing career at age 15, covering high school sports events for The New York Times (at $5 per event). After graduation from college with a degree in Journalism and English, he spent many years as a commercial banker before returning to his first love. In 1979, he founded WordCrafters, Inc., offering a wide range of editorial services, including newsletters, direct mail and ghostwriting. From 1982 to 1988, he was also editor and publisher of The Pasadena Journal of Business and a freelance writer for other business newspapers.

During his career, he has authored or co-authored 18 books, including pictorial histories of such well-known communities as Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Pasadena (twice), Santa Monica and Colorado Springs. He has also ghostwritten numerous books on business, financial and professional topics. In 1982, he began building a library of quotations, which now numbers 425 published volumes, many of them dating back to the 19th century. His collection encompasses more than one-and-a-half million selections, perhaps the largest in the English-speaking world. He has edited and compiled several volumes of quotations, including In Celebration of Children; Worth Repeating: More than 5,000 Classic and Contemporary Quotes; and The Tremendous Power of Prayer. The last named, on which he collaborated with the late well-known motivational speaker, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, received a Silver Angel Award in 2001 from Hollywood-based Excellence in Media.

Since 2003, Bob has been writing and publishing a free monthly online newsletter, titled The KellyGram: Wit and Wisdom About the Wonderful and Often Wacky World of Words. Bob is the creator of Wordcrafters, Inc, dedicated to providing writing and editorial services to speakers, writers, and business leaders.