Shirley Barker (1911-1965). Courtesy Faded Page.
| Shirley Barker | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Shirley Frances Barker April 4, 1911 Farmington, NH |
| Died |
18, 1965 (aged 54) Penacook, NH |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Radcliffe College, Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science |
| Occupation | poet, author, librarian |
Shirley Frances Barker (April 4, 1911 - November 18, 1965)[1] was an American poet, novelist, and librarian.
Life[]
Youth and education[]
Barker was born in Farmington, New Hampshire, a descendant of early settlers of Massachusetts.[2]
She attended the University of New Hampshire, graduating with a B.A. in 1934 as a member of Phi Beta Kappa.[1][3]:689 While she was still an undergraduate, her debut collection, The Dark Hills Under, (1933), won the Yale Younger Poets competition, and was published with a foreword by Stephen Vincent Benet and was well reviewed.[1]
A Yale competition judge had detected some literary affinities between her work and that of Robert Frost, so UNH president Edward M. Lewis asked Barker to send a copy of the collection to Frost, Lewis' friend and correspondent.[3]:471 Frost was enraged by what he perceived as anti-Puritan and anti-theistic sentiments in Barker's poetry and bizarrely insisted that Barker was the illegitimate descendant of a person described in her poem "Portrait".[3]:471–3 In what his biographer described as "a characteristic act of poetic retaliation", Frost penned the ribald poem "Pride of Ancestry"[3]:473 and the religious poem "Not All There".[3]:474 He did not tell Lewis of his objections to Barker's work[3]:474–5 and there is no record that there was any correspondence between Frost and Barker.[3]:690
Career[]
Barker did not publish another book for 16 years. She graduated with an A.M. in English from Radcliffe College in 1938 and a degree in library science from the Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science in 1941. Beginning in 1940, she worked as a librarian at the New York Public Library, primarily in the American history section.[1]
In 1949, she published her debut novel, Peace My Daughters, about the Salem witch trials, which she believed her ancestors had attended.[4] She wrote a series of successful formula historical novels, most of them set in her native New England and some with supernatural elements.[1] 2 of her novels, Rivers Parting (1952) and Swear by Apollo (1959), were Literary Guild selections.[2] The success of these novels enabled her to leave the New York Public Library in 1953 and she moved to Concord, New Hampshire.[3]:689
Barker was found inside a car in her garage in Penacook, New Hampshire, dead of carbon monoxide poisoning. The car windows were up and the gas tank was empty. Her death was ruled a suicide.[4]
Recognition[]
She won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition with her debut collection, The Dark Hills Under (1933).
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- The Dark Hills Under. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1933; New York: AMS Press, 1971.
- A Land and a People: A book of poems. New York: Crown, 1952.
- Fairground of Madness: A duet of images and poems (with Danielle Hope). Ware, UK: Rockingham, 1992.
Novels[]
- Peace, My Daughters. New York: Crown, 1949.
- Rivers Parting. New York: Crown, 1950.
- Fire and the Hammer: A tale of love and violence. New York: Crown, 1953; Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, 1954.
- Tomorrow the New Moon. Indianapolis, IN, & New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1955.
- Liza Bowe. New York: Random House, 1956.
- Swear by Apollo. New York; Random House, 1958.
- The Last Gentleman. New York: Random House, 1960.
- Corner of the Moon. New York: Crown, 1961.
- The Road to Bunker Hill. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1962.
- Strange Wives. New York: Crown, 1963.
Non-fiction[]
- Builders of New England. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1965.
Juvenile[]
- The Trojan Horse. New York: Random House, 1959.
- Magic Carpet: Stories from around the World. Aylesbury, UK: Ginn, 1995.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[5]
See also[]
References[]
Fonds[]
When Frost biographer Lawrance Thompson attempted to access her papers, he was told by her executor that they all "had disappeared under mysterious circumstances".[3]:690 However, typescripts, galleys, and plate proofs of the novels Liza Bowe, Swear by Apollo, and The Last Gentleman are in the University of New Hampshire Library.[6]
Notes[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Shirley Frances Barker." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Gale Biography In Context. Web., Feb. 14 2013.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Walker, Cynthia L. (1979). "Shirley Barker". In Mainiero, Lina. American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present. 1. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co.. pp. 100–02.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Thompson, Lawrance (1970). Robert Frost: The Years of Triumph, 1915-1938. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 003-084530-0. https://archive.org/details/robertfrostyears0000thom.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Shirley Barker, Novelist, Was 54". New York Times: p. 35. November 20, 1965.
- ↑ Search results = au:Shirley Barker, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Jan. 23, 2021.
- ↑ "Shirley Barker (1911–1965) – Milne Special Collections". University of New Hampshire Library. http://www.library.unh.edu/special/index.php/shirley-barker. Retrieved February 16, 2013.
External links[]
- Poems
- Books
- Shirley Barker at Amazon.com
- Shirley Barker at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- About
- Shirley Barker at Encyclopedia.com
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