Margaret Widdemer (September 30, 1884 – July 14, 1978) was an American poet and novelist. She won the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...

(known then as the Columbia University Prize) in 1919 for her collection ''The Old Road to Paradise'', shared with

Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg ...

for ''Cornhuskers''."Poetry"
The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-11-24. Margaret_Widdemer_1922

Biography

Margaret Widdemer was born in

Doylestown, Pennsylvania Doylestown is a borough and the county seat of Bucks County in Pennsylvania, United States. It is located northwest of Trenton, north of Center City, Philadelphia, southeast of Allentown, and southwest of New York City. As of the 2020 ...

, and grew up in

Asbury Park, New Jersey Asbury Park () is a beachfront city located on the Jersey Shore in Monmouth County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 15,188

, where her father, Howard T. Widdemer, was a minister of the First Congregational Church. She graduated from the

Drexel Institute Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Ar ...

Library School in 1909. She first came to public attention with her poem ''The Factories'', which treated the subject of

child labor Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such e ...

. In 1919, she married Robert Haven Schauffler (1879–1964), a widower five 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 The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. Widdemer's memoir ''Golden Years I Had'' recounts her friendships with eminent authors such as

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...

, T. S. Eliot,

Thornton Wilder Thornton Niven Wilder (April 17, 1897 – December 7, 1975) was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes — for the novel '' The Bridge of San Luis Rey'' and for the plays ''Our Town'' and '' The Skin of Our Teeth'' — ...

, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. The scholar Joan Shelley Rubin has surmised that Widdemer coined the term "

middlebrow The term middlebrow describes easily accessible art, usually literature, and the people who use the arts to acquire culture and "class" (social prestige). First used in the British satire magazine '' Punch'' in 1925, the term ''middlebrow'' is the ...

" in her essay "Message and Middlebrow," published in 1933 in ''

The Saturday Review of Literature ''Saturday Review'', previously ''The Saturday Review of Literature'', was an American weekly magazine established in 1924. Norman Cousins was the editor from 1940 to 1971. Under Norman Cousins, it was described as "a compendium of reportage, es ...

''. However, the term had previously been used by the British magazine ''

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pu ...

'' in 1925."Middlebrow". Oxford English Dictionary. 23 February 2008. Widdemer died in New York City, in 1978.

Works

Poetry collections

*''The Factories, With Other Lyrics'' (1915) *''The Old Road to Paradise'' (1918) *''Cross Currents'' (1921) *''Little Girl and Boy Land'' (1924) *''Ballads and Lyrics'' (1925) *''Collected Poems'' (1928) *''The Road to Downderry'' (1931) *''Hill Garden'' (1937) *''Dark Cavalier'' (1958)

Children's fiction

*''Winona of the Camp Fire'' (1915) *''Winona of Camp Karonya'' (1917) *''You're Only Young Once'' (1918) *''Winona's War Farm'' (1918) *''Winona's Way'' (1919) *''Winona on her Own'' (1922) *''Winona's Dreams Come True'' (1923) *''Binkie and the Bell Dolls'' (1923) *''Marcia's Farmhouse'' (1939)

On writing

*''Do You Want to Write?'' (1937) *''Basic Principles of Fiction Writing'' (1953)

Memoir

*''Golden Friends I Had'' (1964) *''Summers at the Colony'' (1964) *''Jessie Rittenhouse: A Centenary Memoir-Anthology'' (1969)

Adult fiction

*''The Rose-Garden Husband'' (1915) – adapted as the 1917 film ''A Wife on Trial'' *''Why Not?'' (1916) – adapted as the 1918 film ''

The Dream Lady ''The Dream Lady'' is a 1918 American silent drama film directed by Elsie Jane Wilson and starring Carmel Myers. It was produced by Bluebird Photoplays and distributed by Universal Film Manufacturing Company Universal Pictures (legally Un ...

'' *''The Wishing Ring Man'' (1919) – adapted as the film ''

The Wishing Ring Man ''The Wishing Ring Man'' is a 1919 American silent drama film produced by Vitagraph Studios and directed by David Smith. It was based on the novel by Margaret Widdemer, and stars Bessie Love, with J. Frank Glendon in the title role. The film ...

'' *''The Boardwalk'' (1919) *''I’ve Married Marjorie'' (1920) *''The Boardwalk'' (1920) *''The Year of Delight'' (1921) *''A Minister of Grace'' (1922) *''Graven Image'' (1923) *''Charis Sees It Through'' (1924) *''Gallant Lady'' (1926) *''More Than Wife'' (1927) *''Loyal Lover'' (1929) *''Rhinestones'' (1929) *''All the King's Horses'' (1930) *''The Truth About Lovers'' (1931) *''The Pre-War Lady'' (1932) *''The Years of Love'' (1933) *''Golden Rain'' (1933) *''The Other Lovers'' (1934) *''Eve's Orchard'' (1935) *''Back to Virtue, Betty'' (1935) *''Songs for a Christmas Tree'' (1935) *''This Isn't the End'' (1936) *''The Singing Wood (1936) *''Marriage is Possible'' (1936) *''Ladies Go Masked'' (1939) *''Hand on Her Shoulder'' (1939) *''She Knew Three Brothers'' (1939) *''Someday I'll Find You'' (1940) *''Lover's Alibi'' (1941) *''Angela Comes Home'' (1942) *''Constancia Herself'' (1945) *''Let Me Have Wings'' (1945) *''Lani'' (1949) *''Red Cloak Flying'' (1950) *''Lady of the Mohawks'' (1951) *''The Great Pine's Son'' (1954) *''The Golden Wildcat'' (1957) *''Buckskin Baronet'' (1960) *''The Red Castle Women'' (1968)

Notes

References

External links

A Celebration of Women Writers: ''The Old Road to Paradise'' by Margaret Widdemer
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Widdemer, Margaret 1884 births 1978 deaths 20th-century American novelists American children's writers 20th-century American poets Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners American women novelists American women poets American women children's writers 20th-century American women writers