Ridgely Torrence

Frederic Ridgely Torrence (Nov. 27, 1874 - Dec. 25, 1950) was an American poet and editor.

Life
He was born in Xenia, Ohio, the son of Findley David Torrence and Mary Ridgely Torrence.

He attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and Princeton University.

In the late 1890s he settled in Greenwich Village, in New York City, working as a librarian and becoming part of a circle of poets that included Edwin Arlington Robinson, William Vaughn Moody, and Robert Frost. Edmund Clarence Stedman helped him revise The House of a Hundred Lights.

He was the fiction editor at Cosmopolitan magazine, from 1905 to 1907.

The verse plays, showing the influence of John Millington Synge, showed realistic portrayals of African Americans, and a revolt against their station in society.

He was poetry editor of New Republic (1920–33), mentoring Louise Bogan.

He also organized the National Survey of the Negro Theater (1939), for the Rockefeller Foundation.

He died in New York City.

His papers are held at Princeton.

Recognition

 * 1942 Shelley Memorial Award
 * 1947 Academy of American Poets' Fellowship