Jean Starr Untermeyer

'''Jean Starr Untermeyer (May 13, 1886 - July 27, 1970) was an American poet.

Life
Jean Starr was born in Zanesville, Ohio, the oldest of 3 children, to Johnanna (Schonfeld) and Abram Starr. She attended Kohut Preparatory School and Columbia University in New York. She married Louis Untermeyer in New York on January 23, 1907, bearing him a son, Richard, 11 months later.

Untermeyer envisioned a career as a lieder singer, but began writing poetry after being inspired by hearing Edna St. Vincent Millay read. Louis Untermeyer discovered her poems and began submitting them to literary magazines. He also pressed for the publication of her first two books.

In 1924 the family travelled to Europe, where Jean Untermeyer made her debut as a singer in London and Vienna. The reception was disappointing. The Untermeyers returned to the United States at the end of 1924, enrolled their son at Yale, and moved to the McCowell Art Colony in 1925. The following year Louis Untermeyer obtained a Mexican divorce, and remarried a young woman he had met at McDowell. The couple's son Richard hanged himself in his room at Yale in 1927.

When his second marriage broke up, Louis and Jean Untermeyer reconciled in 1929 and adopted two boys. However, the reconciliation failed; Untermeyer took custody of the boys, and obtained a second Mexican divorce in 1930. After a court ruled that the two were still married, Jean agreed to a Nevada divorce in 1951.

Untermeyer continued to publish poetry and translations. She stayed at McDowell and Yaddo art colonies, and taught at Olivet College (1936–1937) and the New School for Social Research (1948–1951).

Poetry

 * Growing Pains. 1918.
 * Dreams out of Darkness. 1921.
 * Steep Ascent. 1927.
 * The Flowering of Lane Field. 1933.
 * The Wingèd Child. 1936.
 * Love and Need: Collected Poems. 1918–1940. 1940.
 * Later Poems. 1958.
 * Job’s Daughter. 1967.

Non-fiction

 * Private Collection (memoirs). 1965.

Translated

 * Oscar Bie, Schubert the Man. 1928.
 * Hermann Broch, The Death of Virgil. 1944.
 * Re-Creations (translations from French, German, and Hebrew). 1970.

Other

 * A Bunch of Sweet Peas: Including Poetry, Prizes, Politics, Principles, Patriarchs, Puns, Personal Preferences, and A Few Cues. [1949?]

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia.

Audio / video

 * Jean Starr Untermeyer Reading Her Poems at the City College of New York, March 28, 1941. Sound recording. 1941.
 * Copied 1953 for Archives of Recorded Poetry and Literature, Library of Congress
 * Jean Starr Untermeyer Reading Her Poems, with Comment, at the Pathé Sound Studios, New York, N.Y.: January 5, 1961. Two sound cassettes. 1961.
 * Poetry in a Prosaic World. Presented at Boston Jewish Book Week, Boston Public Library, December 22, 1940. Microform. 1940.