Janet Lewis

Janet Lewis. Courtesy Under the Gables.

Janet Loxley Lewis (August 17, 1899 - November 30 or December 1, 1998) was an American poet and novelist.

Life

Lewis was born in Chicago, Illinois. She graduated from the University of Chicago, where she was a member of a literary circle that included Glenway Wescott, Elizabeth Madox Roberts, and her future husband, Yvor Winters. She was an active member of the University of Chicago Poetry Club. She taught at both Stanford University in California, and the University of California at Berkeley.

Her first novel was The Invasion: A Narrative of Events Concerning the Johnson Family of St. Mary's (1932). She wrote The Wife of Martin Guerre (1941), which is the tale of one man's deception and another’s cowardice. Other prose works include The Trial of Soren Qvist (1947), The Ghost of Monsieur Scarron (1959), and the volume of short fiction, Good-bye, Son, and Other Stories (1946).

Lewis was also a poet: her biographer, Donald E. Stanford, called her ""by talent and temperament primarily a lyric poet". Among her works are The Indians in the Woods (1922), and the later collections Poems, 1924-1944 (1950), and Poems Old and New, 1918-1978 (1981). She also collaborated with Alva Henderson, a composer for whom she wrote three libretti and several song texts.

She married American poet and critic Yvor Winters in 1926. Together they founded Gyroscope, a literary magazine that published from 1929 until 1931.

Lewis died at her home in Los Altos, California, in 1998, at the age of 99.

Recognition

W.H. Auden included her poetry in the Faber Book of Modern American Verse.

Lewis was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992.

Publications

Poetry

• The Indians in the Woods. Monroe Wheeler (Manikin series I), 1922;
  • (with new introduction by Lewis) Palo Alto, CA: Matrix Press, 1980.
• The Wheel in Midsummer. Lynn, MA: Lone Gull, 1927.
• The Earth-Bound, 1924-1944. Aurora, NY: Wells College Press, 1946.
• Poems 1924-1944. Denver, CO: Swallow Press, 1950.
• The Ancient Ones: Poems (illustrated by Daniel M. Mendelowitz). Portola Valley, CA: No Dead Lines, 1979.
• Poems Old and New, 1918-1978. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1981.
• Late Offerings (chapbook). Florence, KY: Robert L. Barth, 1988.
• Janet and Deloss: Poems and pictures San Diego, CA: Brighton Press, 1990.
• The Dear Past, and other poems, 1919-1994. Edgewood KY: Robert L. Barth, 1994
• Selected Poems. Athens OH: Swallow Press / Ohio University Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-8040-1023-8.

Novels

• The Invasion: A narrative of events concerning the Johnston family of St. Mary's. Harcourt, 1932; Swallow Press, 1964; Ann Arbor, MI:University of Michigan Press, 2000.
• The Wife of Martin Guerre. Colt, 1941; Swallow Press, 1970.
• Against a Darkening Sky. New York: Doubleday, 1943; Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1985.
• The Trial of Soren Qvist. New York: Doubleday, 1947; Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1989.
• The Ghost of Monsieur Scarron. New York: Doubleday, 1959.

Short fiction

• Good-Bye, Son, and other stories. New York: Doubleday, 1946
  • revised edition, Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1986.

Juvenile

• The Friendly Adventures of Ollie Ostrich (illustrated by Fay Turpin). Doubleday, 1923.
• Keiko's Bubble (illustrated by Kazue Mizumura). Doubleday, 1961.

Libretti

• The Wife of Martin Guerre: An Opera (first produced at the Julliard School of Music, 1956), music by William Bergsma. Alan Swallow, 1958
  • reprinted as The Wife: A Libretto (For an Opera in Three Acts). John Daniel, 1988.
• (Libretto with Malcolm Seagrave) The Birthday of the Infanta: An Opera in One Act (first produced by the Hidden Valley Opera Ensemble, April 2, 1977), music by Seagrave. Symposium Press, 1979.
• (Libretto with Alva Henderson) The Last of the Mohicans (three-act opera; first produced in Wilmington, Del., June, 1976 ). Wilmington Opera Society 1978.
• Mulberry Street: An Opera, music by Henderson, Dermontt 1981, published as Act II of West of Washington Square, Opera San Jose, 1988.
• The Swans: An Opera in Three Acts, music by Henderson. John Daniel, 1986.
• The Legend, the Story of Neengay, an Ojibway War Chief's Daughter, and the Irishman John Johnston: An Opera Oratorio (based on The Invasion: A Narrative of Events concerning the Johnston Family of St. Mary's; first performed at Cleveland State University, May 8, 1987), music by Bain Murray, John Daniel, 1987.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.

Carmel Highlands The Girl Choir of South Florida

Poems by Janet Lewis

1. The End of the Age

See also

• List of U.S. poets

External links

Poems

• Janet Loxley Lewis 1899-1998 at the Poetry Foundation
• Janet Lewis at PoemHunter (2 poems).
• Janet Loxley Lewis in Poetry: A magazine of verse, 1912-1922: "Austerity," "The End of the Age," "Geology," "Fossil"

Books

• Janet Lewis at Amazon.com

About

• Janet Loxley Lewis at Illinois Center for the Book
• Obituary: Janet Lewis at The Independent
• "Janet Lewis, 99, Poet of Spirit and Keeper of the Hearth, Dies" obituary, New York Times
• "Janet Lewis" by Richard Stern in the Virginia Quarterly Review
• "The Return of Janet Lewis" by Larry McMurtry in the New York Review of Books