Margaret Widdemer

Margaret Widdemer (September 30, 1884 - July 14, 1978) was an American poet and novelist who won an early Pulitzer Prize. She popularized the term, 'middlebrow'.

Margaret Widdemer (1884-1978), circa 1964. Courtesy NowEverThen.

Life

Widdemer was born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She grew up in Asbury Park, New Jersey, where her father, Howard T. Widdemer, was a minister of the First Congregational Church. She was home schooled, and then attended high school in Asbury Park. She graduated from the Drexel Institute Library School in 1909.(Citation needed)

She came to public attention with her poem The Factories, which treated the subject of child labor.

In 1919 she married Robert Haven Schauffler (1879-1964), a widower 5 years her senior. Schauffler was an author and cellist who published widely on poetry, travel, culture, and music. His papers are held at the University of Texas at Austin. Widdemer's memoir Golden Years I Had recounts her friendships with emiment authors such as Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S. Eliot, Thornton Wilder, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Widdemer's essay in the 1933 Review of Literature, "Message and Middlebrow," popularized the term "middlebrow."

Recognition

Widdemer won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry (known then as the Columbia University Prize) in 1919 for her collection The Old Road to Paradise, sharing the prize with Carl Sandburg (who won for Corn Husker).

Her 1915 novels, The Rose-Garden Husband and Why Not?, were made into the films A Wife on Trial (1917) and Dream Lady (1918).

Publications

The Factories, with other lyrics. Philadelphia: John C. Winston, 1915. Courtesy Internet Archive.

Poetry

• The Factories, with other lyrics. Philadelphia: John C. Winston, 1915.
• Factories: Poems. New York: Holt, 1917.
• The Old Road to Paradise: Poems. New York: Holt, 1918.
• Cross-Currents. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1921.
• A Tree with a Bird in It: A symposium of contemporary American poets on being shown a pear-tree on which sat a grackle. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1922.
• Ballads and Lyrics. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1925.
• The Singing Wood. New York: Adelphi, 1926.
• Collected Poems. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1928.
• The Road to Downderry, and other poems. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1932.
• Hill Garden: New poems. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1936.
• Song for a Christmas Tree. New York: 1938.
• The Dark Cavalier: Collected poems. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1958.

Novels

• The Rose-Garden Husband. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1915; Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1915; London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1915.
• Why Not?. New York: Hearst's International, 1915; Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild, & Stewart, 1915.
• The Wishing-Ring Man. New York: Holt, 1917; London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1918.
• You're Only Young Once. New York: Holt, 1918; London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1919.
• I’ve Married Marjorie. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & Howe, 1920.
• The Boardwalk. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & Howe, 1920.
• The Year of Delight. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1921.
• A Minister of Grace. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1922.
• Graven Image. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1923; London: Harrap, 1924.
• Charis Sees It Through. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1924.
• Gallant Lady. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1926; London: John Long, 1928.
• More Than Wife. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1927; London: John Long, 1928.
• Rhinestones: A romance. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1929; London: John Long, 1929.
• Loyal Lover. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1930; London: John Long, 1930.
• All the King's Horses. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1930.
• The Truth About Lovers. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1931; London: Rich & Cowan, 1935.
• The Pre-War Lady. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1932.
• The Years of Love. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1933; London: Rich & Cowan, 1935.
• Golden Rain. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1933.
• The Other Lovers. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1934; London: Rich & Cowan, 1935.
• Eve's Orchard. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1935; London: Rich & Cowan, 1936.
• Back to Virtue, Betty. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1934; London: Rich & Cowan, 1935.
• Glamorous Lady. London: Rich & Cowan, 1936.
• This Isn’t the End. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1936.
• Marriage is Possible. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1936; London: Rich & Cowan, 1936.
• Hand on Her Shoulder. New York & Toronto: Farrar & Rinehart, 1938.
• Ladies Go Masked. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1939.
• She Knew Three Brothers. New York & Toronto: Farrar & Rinehart, 1939)
• Someday I'll Find You. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1940.
• Let Me Have Wings. New York & Toronto: Farrar & Rinehart, 1941.
• Lover's Alibi. New York & Toronto: Farrar & Rinehart, 1941.
• Angela Comes Home. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1942.
• Constancia Herself. New York & Toronto: Farrar & Rinehart, 1945.
• Lani. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1948.
• Red Cloak Flying. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1950; London: Home & Van Thal, 1951.
• Lady of the Mohawks. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1951.
• The Great Pine's Son: A story of the Pontiac War. Philadelphia & Toronto: Winston, 1954.
• The Golden Wildcat: An historical novel. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1954; London: John Long, 1955.
• Buckskin Baronet. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1960.
• The Red Castle Women. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968; London: Jenkins, 1969.

Non-fiction

• Do You Want to Write? New York & Toronto: Farrar & Rinehart, 1937; London: Isaac Pitman, 1938.
• Basic Principles of Fiction Writing. Boston: The Writer, 1953.
• Golden Friends I Had: Unrevised memories. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964.
• Summers at the Colony. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Library Associates, 1964.

Juvenile

• Winona of the Camp Fire. Philadelphia & London: Lippincott, 1915.
• Winona of Camp Karonya. Philadelphia & London: Lippincott, 1917.
• Winona's War Farm. Philadelphia & London: Lippincott, 1918.
• Winona's Way: A story of Reconstruction. Philadelphia & London: Lippincott, 1919.
• Winona on her Own. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1922.
• Winona's Dreams Come True. Philadelphia & London: Lippincott, 1923.
• Binkie and the Bell Dolls. Philadelphia: 1923.
• Little Girl and Boy Land: Poems for children. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1924.
• Marcia's Farmhouse. New York: D. Appleton / Century, 1939.

Edited

• The Haunted Hour: An anthology. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & Howe, 1920.
• The Best American Love Stories of the Year. New York: John Day, 1932.

Winter Branches - Margaret Widdemer. Visual Poetry with narration.

• Jessie Rittenhouse: A centenary memoir-anthology. South Brunswick, NJ: A.S. Barnes / New York:Poetry Society of America, 1969.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of U.S. poets

References

Fonds

• Margaret Widdemer papers at Syracuse University

External links

Poems

• "The Factories" in Modern American Poetry
• "The Watcher"
• "Laggard"
• "Old Books" (profile & poem)
• Margaret Widdemer in The New Poetry: An anthology: "The Beggars," "Teresina's Face," "Greek Folk Song"
• Margaret Widmer 3 poems at the Academy of American Poets
• Margaret Widdemer at the Poetry Foundation
• Widdemer in Poetry: A magazine of verse, 1912-1922: "The Jester," "The Beggars," "Teresina's Face," "The Wakened God," "A Lost Friend," "The Net," "The Singer at the Gate," "The Last Song of Bilitis," "Youth-song," "Vain Hiding," "I Did Not Know," "Prescience"
• Margaret Widdemer at PoemHunter (85 poems)

Audio / video

• Margaret Widdemer poems at YouTube

Books

• Works by Margaret Widdemer at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Margaret Widdemer at the Internet Archive
• Margaret Widdemer at Amazon.com

About

• Margaret Widdemer at NowEverThen
• Margaret Widdemer at the Internet Movie Database