MEDAL OF THE MONTH CLUB: BURANELLI AND BURNELLI

The submission from David Alexander on the MOTMC is great stuff. I am hugely appreciative of his input. I knew about the talk to the NYNC in August 1941 but to get the minutes of the meeting is outstanding.

And following up on Mr. Alexander's confusion on the spelling of 'Buranelli,' one of the big breakthroughs I got when I was researching The Medal-Of-The-Month Club was that the spelling of both names was correct. The family name is Buranelli but sometime in the 20s Felicity Buranelli's brother Vincent dropped the 'a' in his name and became Vincent Burnelli. Once I figured this out research blossomed. Felicity had another brother by the name of Prosper Buranelli and my guess is Vincent changed the spelling of his last name to create a little space between himself and his older brother.

Prosper Buranelli (1891-1960) was a newspaper man on the Sunday World in 1919 when he was given the crossword puzzle placement assignment. In 1924 he co-edited with Margaret Farrar and Gregory Hartswick the first book of Crossword Puzzles and continued to do so for the next 49 editions. He is credited with popularizing the crossword puzzle. Prosper Buranelli was associated with Lowell Thomas for 34 years and the night before Buranelli died, he spent the evening in serious discussions with Lowell Thomas, Thomas E. Dewey, Edward R. Morrow and Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. Not a bad room to play before the final curtain. I read his obituary in the June 20, 1960 New York Times. He is an extremely interesting man!

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: MORE ON THE MEDAL OF THE MONTH (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v15n28a14.html)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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