Mary Bernetta Quinn (1915–2003), who published as M. Bernetta Quinn, was a Franciscan nun, literary critic, and correspondent with many of the most notable poets and writers of her era (see correspondence section below). The author of five books and many academic articles, she published on the Catholic Church's engagement with modernist poetry, particularly in works by Flannery O'Connor, Denise Levertov, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, and Randall Jarrell, all of whom were among her many literary correspondents.

Early life and education

She was born Viola Roselyn Quinn in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, on September 19, 1915 to Ellen M. Foran Quinn, a native of Ireland, and Bernard Franklin Quinn, a native of Wisconsin. In 1934 she entered the Franciscan Sisters of the Congregation of Our Lady of Lourdes at St. Francis Parish in Lake Geneva. She professed her first vows in 1937. She earned a bachelor's degree in English at the College of St. Teresa in Winona, Minnesota in 1942. In 1944 she earned an M.A. in English at the

Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Catholic research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is one of two pontifical universities of the Catholic Church in the United States – the only one that is not primarily a ...

in Washington, DC. In 1952 she defended her dissertation and earned a doctorate in English from the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

. Her dissertation was excerpted in ''

The Sewanee Review ''The Sewanee Review'' is an American literary magazine established in 1892. It is the oldest continuously published quarterly in the United States. It publishes original fiction and poetry, essays, reviews, and literary criticism. History '' ...

''. She also studied abroad, attending the International Yeats Summer School in Sligo, Ireland.

Career

Teaching

She began her teaching career in elementary and secondary schools in St. Priscilla Parish, Chicago, and Winona and Austin, Minnesota. In 1954 she joined the English department faculty of the College of St. Teresa in Winona, Minnesota, remaining there until to 1967. She had an interest in

historically black colleges and universities Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of serving African Americans. Most are in the Southern U ...

, teaching at

Allen University Allen University is a private Historically black colleges and universities, historically black university in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. It has more than 600 students and still serves a predominantly Black constituency. The campus ...

in South Carolina and

Norfolk State University Norfolk State University (NSU) is a Public university, public Historically black colleges and universities, historically black university in Norfolk, Virginia. It is a member of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and Virginia High-Tech Partnersh ...

in Virginia. She also taught abroad at two Tokyo, Japan campuses, University of the Sacred Heart. and

Meiji Gakuin University is a private, Christian university with the main campus in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, and a satellite campus in Yokohama, Kanagawa. It was established in 1863. The Rev. Dr. James Curtis Hepburn was one of its founders and served as the firs ...

. She had visiting professorships at the Catholic University of America, SUNY-Buffalo, St. Andrew's Presbyterian College in North Carolina (now St. Andrew's University), and Siena College.

Poetry

She wrote poetry all her life, and it began appearing in print in the 1940s. In 1949 she published "Explanation" in ''College English'', and in 1959 she published "For Ruth Wallerstein Who Died in England, April 1958" there. Flannery O'Connor, a Catholic who attended daily mass, spoke highly of “the Sister at Minneapolis that writes such good poetry." Quinn corresponded with O'Connor and her mother Regina. Quinn's poem, "Children Carrying Wood," appeared in ''Art Journal'' in 1962, and "In Branches of Spruce" in ''The Sewanee Review'' in 1963.

Books

She published five books, ''Motive and Method in the Cantos of Ezra Pound'' (with

Hugh Kenner William Hugh Kenner (January 7, 1923 – November 24, 2003) was a Canadian literary scholar, critic and professor. His studies on Modernist literature often analyzed the work of James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and Samuel Beckett. His major study of ...

Guy Davenport Guy Mattison Davenport (November 23, 1927 – January 4, 2005) was an American writer, translator, illustrator, painter, intellectual, and teacher. Life Guy Davenport was born in Anderson, South Carolina, in the foothills of Appalachia on Novem ...

, and Forrest Read Jr.) (Columbia University Press, 1953), ''The Metamorphic Tradition in Modern Poetry'' (1955), reviewed by such figures as

R. W. B. Lewis Richard Warrington Baldwin Lewis (November 1, 1917 - June 13, 2002) was an American literary scholar and critic. He gained a wider reputation when he won a 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, the first National Book Critics Circle ...

, David Ferry, Austin Warren, and Hazard Adams, ''Give Me Souls: A Life of Raphael Cardinal Merry del Val'' (Newman Press 1958), reviewed in the ''New York Times'', ''To God Alone the Glory: A Life of

St. Bonaventure Bonaventure ( ; ; ; born Giovanni di Fidanza; 1221 – 15 July 1274) was an Italian Catholic Franciscan bishop, cardinal, scholastic theologian and philosopher. The seventh Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, he also serv ...

'' (1962), and ''Ezra Pound: An Introduction to the Poetry'' (Columbia Introductions to Twentieth-Century American Poetry, 1972). After her retirement she published a poetry collection, ''--dancing in stillness'' (1983). She had residencies at

Yaddo Yaddo is an artists' community located on a estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.". On March ...

, the Bellagio Center (Rockefeller Foundation), and the

MacDowell Colony MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire. The program was founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDo ...

, and received grants from the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

and

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

Correspondence with literary figures

She had significant letter-writing correspondences with major literary figures including

Flannery O'Connor Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925August 3, 1964) was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. She wrote two novels and 31 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. O'Connor was a Southern writer who of ...

and her mother Regina, novelists

Caroline Gordon Caroline Ferguson Gordon (October 6, 1895 – April 11, 1981) was an American novelist and literary critic who, while still in her thirties, received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1932 and an O. Henry Award in 1934. Biography Gordon was bor ...

Doris Betts Doris Betts (June 4, 1932 – April 21, 2012) was a short story writer, novelist, essayist and Alumni Distinguished Professor Emerita at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was the author of three short story collections and six novels ...

Sylvia Wilkinson Sylvia Jean Wilkinson (born 1940) is an American author. She was born in Durham, North Carolina, United States She graduated from Woman's College, now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, in 1962. She received her master's degree from H ...

Peter Taylor Peter Taylor may refer to: Arts * Peter Taylor (writer) (1917–1994), American author, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction * Peter Taylor (film editor) (1922–1997), English film editor, winner of an Academy Award for Film Editing Politic ...

Shelby Stephenson Shelby Stephenson (born June 14, 1938) is an American poet. On December 22, 2014, he was named by Governor Pat McCrory as the ninth North Carolina Poet Laureate, a position he held from 2014 to 2016. Biography Stephenson was born in Benson, J ...

Robie Macauley Robie Mayhew Macauley (May 31, 1919 – November 20, 1995) was an American editor, novelist and critic whose literary career spanned more than 50 years. Biography Early life Robie Mayhew Macauley was born on May 31, 1919, in Grand Rapids, M ...

, and

Robert Penn Warren Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, literary critic and professor at Yale University. He was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern ...

, writer and painter

, the poets

Denise Levertov Priscilla Denise Levertov (24 October 1923 – 20 December 1997) was a British-born naturalised American poet. She was heavily influenced by the Black Mountain poets and by the political context of the Vietnam War, which she explored in her p ...

Gibbons Ruark Gibbons Ruark (born 1941) is a contemporary American poet. Known for his deeply personal often elegiac lyrics about his native North Carolina and beloved Ireland, Ruark has had poetry in such publications as ''The New Yorker'', ''The New Republ ...

, Grace DiSanto,

Fred Chappell Fred Davis Chappell (May 28, 1936 – January 4, 2024) was an author and poet. He was an English professor for 40 years (1964–2004) at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He was the Poet Laureate of North Carolina from 1997 to 20 ...

James Laughlin James Laughlin (October 30, 1914 – November 12, 1997) was an American poet and literary book publisher who founded New Directions Publishing. Early life He was born in Pittsburgh, the son of Henry Hughart and Marjory Rea Laughlin. Laughlin ...

Robert Lowell Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the ''Mayflower''. His family, past and present, were important subjects ...

Robert Bly Robert Elwood Bly (December 23, 1926 – November 21, 2021) was an American poet, essayist, activist and leader of the mythopoetic men's movement. His best-known prose book is '' Iron John: A Book About Men'' (1990), which spent 62 weeks on ...

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish Irish poetry, poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966), his first m ...

, James Wright,

Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...

Richard Wilbur Richard Purdy Wilbur (March 1, 1921 – October 14, 2017) was an American poet and literary translator. One of the foremost poets, along with his friend Anthony Hecht, of the World War II generation, Wilbur's work, often employing rhyme, and c ...

, and

Allen Tate John Orley Allen Tate (November 19, 1899 – February 9, 1979), known professionally as Allen Tate, was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and poet laureate from 1943 to 1944. Among his best known works are the poems " Ode to th ...

, the Italian-American poet and translator

Mary de Rachewiltz Mary de Rachewiltz (born Maria Rudge) is an Italian-American poet and translator. She is the daughter of the American poet Ezra Pound, whose ''The Cantos'' she translated into Italian. Her childhood memoir '' Discretions'' was published in 1971. ...

(daughter of Ezra Pound), and violinist

Olga Rudge Olga Rudge (April 13, 1895 – March 15, 1996) was an American-born concert violinist, who had a long-term relationship with the poet Ezra Pound, by whom she had a daughter, Mary. A gifted concert violinist of international repute, her consid ...

(Pound's longtime companion), critic Frank Tuohy, and philosopher Donald Davidson. Her papers are in the

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library () is the rare book library and literary archive of the Yale University Library in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the largest buildings in the world dedicated to rare books and manuscripts and ...

at Yale University, and the Wilson Special Collections Library of UNC-Chapel Hill.

Literary criticism

She published articles in journals such as ''The Sewanee Review'', ''PMLA'', and ''The English Journal'', often writing about figures she knew personally such as Denise Levertov, Flannery O'Connor, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, and Randall Jarrell.

Retirement

In 1983 she retired to Assisi Heights in Rochester, Minnesota, and marked her Franciscan diamond jubilee in 1997. She died on February 24, 2003, leaving an unfinished draft of ''Pilgrimage to the Stars'', a book for children about

Dante's Dante's is a nightclub and live music venue in Portland, Oregon. The venue, located along West Burnside Street and owned by Frank Faillace, hosts a variety of acts ranging from burlesque to rock music. Dante's is housed in an unreinforced mason ...

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' (, ) is an Italian narrative poetry, narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of ...

'', which is housed in UNC-Chapel Hill's special collections.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quinn, Mary Bernetta 1915 births 2003 deaths 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American poets 20th-century American Roman Catholic nuns 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American poets 21st-century American Roman Catholic nuns 21st-century American women writers American Catholic poets American literary critics American people of Irish descent American Roman Catholic writers American women non-fiction writers American women poets Catholics from Wisconsin Catholic University of America alumni Franciscan writers Religious leaders from Wisconsin Rockefeller Fellows Roman Catholic scholars University of Wisconsin alumni Women scholars and academics Yaddo alumni