American historian and author Ruth Edna Kelley of Massachusetts wrote the first book-length history of Halloween in the US; "The Book of Hallowe'en" (1919), and references souling in the chapter "Hallowe'en in America". In her book, Kelley touches on customs that arrived from across the Atlantic; "Americans have fostered them, and are making this an occasion something like what it must have been in its best days overseas. All Halloween customs in the United States are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries".