- Elinor Wylie
Elinor Morton Wylie "née" Hoyt (
September 7 ,1885 –December 16 ,1928 ) was an American poet and novelist who was popular beforeWorld War II .Family
Wylie was born in
Somerville, New Jersey . Her grandfather,Henry M. Hoyt , was agovernor ofPennsylvania ; she was raised in this socially prominent family inWashington, D.C. Her aunt wasHelen Hoyt , a minor poet. [cite book|author=Taylor, Georgina|title=H.D. and the Public Sphere of Modernist Women Writers 1913-1946: Talking Women|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=76|isbn=ISBN 0198187130] In 1912, she graduated from theHolton-Arms School inBethesda, Maryland . She eloped withHarvard graduate Philip Simmons Hichborn (September 30 ,1882 inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania - 1912) son of a rear-admiral Philip Hichborn (March 4 ,1839 inCharlestown, Massachusetts - 1910), they were married onDecember 13 ,1906 . She later eloped with Horace Wylie while still married to Hichborn. She married three times and had a son Philip Simmons Hichborn, Jr. (September 22 ,1907 inWashington, D.C. - ?) by her first husband. Her last marriage (in 1923) [New International Encyclopedia ] was toWilliam Rose Benét (February 2 ,1886 inBrooklyn, New York -May 4 ,1950 ) who was part of her literary circle and brother ofStephen Vincent Benet .Her parents were Henry Martyn Hoyt (December 1856 in
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania - ?) and Anne Morton McMichael (July 31 ,1861 in Pa. -?). Their other children were:
* Henry Martyn Hoyt (May 8 ,1887 in Pa. - 1920 inNew York City ) who married Alice Gordon Parker (January 27 ,1885 inNewark, New Jersey - 1951)
* Constance A. Hoyt (May 20 ,1889 in Pa. - 1923 inBavaria ,Germany ) who married Ferdinand von Stumm-Halberg onMarch 30 ,1910 inWashington, D.C.
* Morton McMichael Hoyt (April 4 ,1899 inWashington, D.C. - ?), three times married and divorced Eugenia Bankhead, known as "Sister" and sister ofTallulah Bankhead
*Nancy McMichael Hoyt (October 01 ,1902 in Washington, D.C - ?) romance novelist who wrote "Elinor Wylie: The Portrait of an Unknown Woman" (1935). She married Edward Davison Curtis, they divorced in 1932.Career
Talented in several arts, she was torn between painting and writing, but her position inside
Washington, D.C. literary circles, particularly withJohn Dos Passos andEdmund Wilson , encouraged her writing efforts. She wrote eight novels and several books of poetry. Her first book, "Incidental Numbers" (1912), was published privately inEngland . The first of her books to bring her recognition was her first official collection of poetry, "Nets to Catch the Wind" (1921). She was named literary editor of "Vanity Fair" magazine in 1922.Her other volumes of poetry include: "Black Armour" (1923), "Trivial Breath" (1928), "Angels and Earthly Creatures" (1929), and "Collected Poems of Elinor Wylie" (1932). Wylie's literary interests are largely conservative and formal, as demonstrated by her preoccupation with the
sonnet . Heavily influenced by 16th and 17th century English poetics, Wylie also shares theRomantics ' infatuation with nature and fantasy.Her last novel, "Orphan Angel" (1926) explores what
Percy Bysshe Shelley 's life would have been like if he had escaped his early death and moved to America.Works
*Angels and Earthly Creatures
*Black Armour
*Collected Poems
*Collected Prose
*Incidental numbers
*Last Poems of Elinor Wylie
*Mortal Image
*Nets to Catch the Wind
*Prophecy
*Selected Works of Elinor Wylie
*Trivial BreathNovels
*"Jennifer Lorn: A Sedate Extravaganza" (1923)
*"The Venetian Glass Nephew" (1925)
*"The Orphan Angel" (1926)
*"Mr. Hodge and Mr. Hazard" (1928)References
External links
*gutenberg author| id=Elinor+Wylie | name=Elinor Wylie "Nets to Catch the Wind"
* [http://www.poemtree.com/Wylie.htm Poems of Elinor Wylie] at Poemtree.com
* [http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/wylie01.html Poems of Elinor Wylie] at Poet's Corner
* [http://www.geocities.com/juscurious/ewylienewadditions.html Elinor Wylie]
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