Caroline May (born

Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...

, England c. 1820; died March 5, 1895) was an English-American poet, editor, and literary critic. May's family came to the United States in 1834 when her father, Edward Harrison May Sr., accepted a position as pastor of a

Dutch Reformed The Dutch Reformed Church (, , abbreviated NHK ) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the traditional denomination of the Dutch royal fami ...

church in New York City. She began to publish poems, at first under the pseudonym Caromaia. In 1848 she edited ''American Female Poets, With Biographical and Critical Notices'', which collected poems and information on many female American poets of the day. Several similar works were published in the same year, and a

literary feud A literary feud is a conflict or quarrel between well-known writers, usually conducted in public view by way of published letters, speeches, lectures, and interviews. In the book ''Literary Feuds'', Anthony Arthur describes why readers might be i ...

ensued between May and Rufus Griswold, the editor of ''Female Poets of America''. She later edited several other anthologies and at least three collections of her poetry. After the death of her father in Philadelphia in 1853 she lived in Pelham, New York, where she taught at the Priory School for Girls. Her younger brother Edward Harrison May Jr. was a notable painter who spent most of his life in Paris.

Works

*''American Female Poets, with Biographical and Critical Notices'' (ed., 1848) Republished in 1869 as ''Pearls From the American Female Poets''. *''Treasured Thoughts from Favorite Authors'' (ed., 1850) *''The Woodbine, a Holiday Gift'' (ed., 1852 - a

gift book Gift books, literary annuals, or keepsakes were 19th-century books, often lavishly decorated, which collected essays, short fiction, and poetry. They were primarily published in the autumn, in time for the holiday season and were intended to be g ...

) *''Poems'' (1864) *''Hymns on the Collects for Every Sunday in the Year'' (1872) *''Lays of Memory and Affection'' (1888)

References

1820s births 1895 deaths 19th-century American poets American women poets English emigrants to the United States 19th-century American women writers {{England-writer-stub