June Hildegarde Flanner (June 3, 1899 – May 27, 1987) was an American poet, essayist, playwright and conservationist.

Early years

June Hildegarde Flanner was born in

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

, Indiana, to

Frank Flanner Frank W. Flanner (December 5, 1854 – February 17, 1912) was an American mortician, woodcarver, philanthropist and humanitarian. Early life and family Francis (Frank) William Flanner was born in Mount Pleasant, Ohio to Henry Beeson Flanner (182 ...

and Mary Ellen Hockett. She had two older sisters, noted journalist

Janet Flanner Janet Flanner (March 13, 1892 – November 7, 1978) was an American writer and pioneering narrative journalist who served as the Paris correspondent of ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1925 until she retired in 1975.Yagoda, Ben ''About T ...

and Marie Flanner, a musician and composer. Frank Flanner was Indiana's first licensed embalmer and in 1881 he founded a company that is still in business a
Flanner and Buchanan Funeral Centers
In 1898, Frank Flanner founded the Flanner Guild, a not-for-profit community service center for African-Americans in Indianapolis, now called

Flanner House Flanner House is a social services organization, with a 2-acre farm, bodega, cafe, and orchard serving the Indianapolis community. It started in 1903 as an African-American community service center and was named for Frank Flanner. When Flanner ...

Later life

Hildegarde Flanner attended

Sweet Briar College Sweet Briar College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's liberal arts college in Sweet Briar, Amherst County, Virginia, Amherst County, Virginia. It was established in 1901 by Indiana Fletcher Williams in ...

in Virginia before moving to California in 1919 to attend the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. At the university, she studied poetry with

Witter Bynner Harold Witter Bynner (August 10, 1881 – June 1, 1968), also known by the pen name Emanuel Morgan, was an American poet and translator. He was known for his long residence in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and association with other literary figures ther ...

and was on the literary staff of ''The Occident''. Flanner was honored with the Emily Chamberlain Cook Prize in 1920 for her poem ''Young Girl''. Along with her mother, Flanner lost her home and most of her possessions in the Berkeley Fire of 1923, prompting them to move to southern California. On June 29, 1926, Flanner married architect and artist

Frederick Monhoff Frederick Monhoff (November 23, 1897 – October 11, 1975) was an American architect, artist, and illustrator. His architectural style ranged from art deco to mid-century modern, while his etchings of the 1920s-30s documented scenes of Native ...

and lived in

Altadena Altadena () is an unincorporated area, and census-designated place in the San Gabriel Valley and the Verdugos regions of Los Angeles County, California. Directly north of Pasadena, it is located approximately from Downtown Los Angeles. Its po ...

with their child, John, born in 1941. Hildegarde Flanner continued to write under her maiden name, chronicling events in her life as well as the changing landscape of California in the twentieth century. Flanner's contributions were published in ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

'', ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...

'' and ''

Poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

''. She was named the New Directions Poet of the Month in 1942. One of their neighbors in Altadena was Danish illustrator

Kay Nielsen Kay Rasmus Nielsen (March 12, 1886 – June 21, 1957) was a Danish illustrator who was popular in the early 20th century, the Golden Age of Illustration which lasted from when Daniel Vierge and other pioneers developed printing technology to th ...

and in 1977 Flanner's elegy on Nielsen was included in ''The Unknown Paintings of Kay Nielsen''. Flanner and Monhoff spent their later years on their property in

Calistoga Calistoga may refer to: * Calistoga, California * Calistoga AVA, an American Viticultural Area that partly overlaps the town of Calistoga * Calistoga Water Company, bottled water brand sourced in Calistoga, California * Calistoga, code name for ...

Napa Valley Napa Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) in Napa County, California. The area was established by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) on February 27, 1981, after a 1978 petition submitted by the Napa Valley Vin ...

, California. Flanner was an avid gardener, with particular interests in ornamental grasses and

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

. It was thought that Flanner had the largest collection of bamboo varieties in California.

Bibliography

Poetry

* ''Young Girl and Other Poems'' (1920) * ''This Morning'' (1921) * ''A Tree in Bloom and Other Verses'' (1924) * ''Time's Profile'' (1929) * ''Valley Quail'' (1929) * ''If There Is Time (The Poet Of The Month Series)'' (1942) * ''In Native Light'' (1970) * ''The Hearkening Eye (Modern and Contemporary Poetry of the West)'' (1979) * ''X'' (1983) * ''At the Gentle Mercy of Plants: Essays and Poems'' (1986)

Plays

* ''Mansions'' (1920) * ''The White Bridge'' (1938)

Essays

* ''A Vanishing Land'' (1980) * ''Brief Cherishing: A Napa Valley Harvest'' (1985) * ''Different Images: Portraits of Remembered People'' (1987)

References

External links

"Hildegarde Flanner Papers, 1924-1984"

"Hildegarde Flanner Papers, 1923-1983, bulk 1923-1953"

Huntington Library The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, known as The Huntington, is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington and Arabella Huntington in San Marino, California, United State ...

"Hildegarde Flanner Papers, 1920–1977"

Indiana Historical Society The Indiana Historical Society (IHS) is one of the United States' oldest and largest historical societies. It describes itself as "Indiana's Storyteller". It is housed in the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center at 450 West Ohio Stree ...

* Short radio episode
"The Spell Cast"
from ''A Vanishing Land'',

California Legacy Project Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California, United States. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university's campus surrounds t ...

* Booklet,
"The Berkeley Fire (1992) includes an H. Flanner essay about surviving the 1923 fire"
published by the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association
"Hildegarde Flanner and the Great Berkeley Fire of 1923"
''Berkeley Daily Planet'', June 26, 2007 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Flanner, Hildegarde 1899 births 1987 deaths American women poets American women essayists American women dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American poets 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American essayists