Scofield Thayer (December 12, 1889 in

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

– July 9, 1982 in Edgartown) was a wealthy American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

, best known for his art collection, now at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, and as a publisher and editor of the literary magazine '' The Dial'' during the 1920s. He published many emerging American and European writers.

Life and career

Thayer was born in

on December 12, 1889 to Edward D. Thayer and Florence (née Scofield) Thayer. The Thayers were a prominent and wealthy Massachusetts family. Scofield's father was the owner of several area woollen mills, a founding investor in the Crompton & Thayer Loom Company, and a director of the Worcester Trust Company. Scofield's uncle Ernest Thayer was the author of the well-known poem "

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". Thayer was a

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

student. His Harvard years would prove formative; during them Thayer would serve on the staff of the ''Harvard Monthly''. During these years Thayer would also meet many other young poets and authors, including E. E. Cummings, Alan Seeger, Lincoln MacVeagh, Arthur Wilson (later known as Winslow Wilson) and Gilbert Seldes. A large dormitory for freshmen at Harvard, in which Cummings once roomed (room 306), is named after the Thayer family. Thayer graduated from Harvard in 1913. After Harvard, Thayer went to

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

for post-graduate studies at the same time as

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

. Thayer married Elaine Orr on June 21, 1916. He commissioned his friend Cummings to write his poem "Epithalamion" as a wedding present. The marriage did not last long, however, and Thayer moved to his own place. By 1919 Elaine was having an affair with Cummings, giving birth to their daughter, Nancy, in December of that year. Thayer's involvement with ''The Dial'' began in April 1918 when he purchased $600

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worth of stock in the magazine. In late 1919, Thayer and his fellow Harvard alumnus Dr. James Sibley Watson, Jr. purchased ''The Dial'' from the owner, Martyn Johnson, who was suffering financial trouble. Dr. Watson became the magazine's president while Thayer took up the post of editor. Thayer was also assisted by another fellow Harvard alumni, Merrill Rogers, who along with Thayer was responsible for a complete restructuring of the magazine's finances and staff. The new team produced its first issue of ''Dial'' in January 1920. The issue featured works from E. E. Cummings, Gaston Lachaise, Arthur Wilson ( Winslow Wilson) and Carl Sandburg. In July 1921, Thayer sailed for Europe. He settled in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, and, although he would remain there for more than two years, he continued to direct the operations of ''The Dial''. He solicited financial backing from European investors and sent layout and content instructions back to the magazine's offices in New York regularly. While in Vienna he was psychoanalysed by

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...

. During the mid-1920s Thayer began to suffer a series of mental breakdowns, and began to deteriorate. He resigned as editor of ''The Dial'' in June 1926, and spent the remainder of his life in the care of relatives and various institutions and sanatoria. He was diagnosed with

paranoid schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, hearing voices), delusions, disorganized thinking and behavior, and flat or inappropriate affect. Symptoms develop gradually and typically begin ...

. Watson continued with ''The Dial'', working with editor

Marianne Moore Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American Modernism, modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for its formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit. In 1968 Nobel Prize in Li ...

. Their final issue was published in July 1929. Thayer was certified insane in 1937, the year after his mother died. He thenceforth lived the secluded life of a rich man, surrounded by servants, and moving among homes in

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

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, and his family home on

Martha's Vineyard Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, lying just south of Cape Cod. It is known for being a popular, affluent summer colony, and includes the smaller peninsula Chappaquiddick Isla ...

. He died on July 9, 1982 at the age of 93, leaving a bequest of 400 items from his art collection to the

. He left his

Aubrey Beardsley Aubrey Vincent Beardsley ( ; 21 August 187216 March 1898) was an English illustrator and author. His black ink drawings were influenced by Woodblock printing in Japan, Japanese woodcuts, and depicted the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. ...

collection of drawings to the Fogg Art Museum.

References

External links

* Hermann Bahr,

Arthur Schnitzler Arthur Schnitzler (15 May 1862 – 21 October 1931) was an Austrian author and dramatist. He is considered one of the most significant representatives of Viennese Modernism. Schnitzler’s works, which include psychological dramas and narratives ...

: ''Briefwechsel, Aufzeichnungen, Dokumente 1891–1931.'' Ed. Kurt Ifkovits, Martin Anton Müller. Göttingen: Wallstein 2018,
publisher’s website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thayer, Scofield 1889 births 1982 deaths Alumni of the University of Oxford Harvard University alumni 20th-century American poets American publishers (people) Analysands of Sigmund Freud Writers from Worcester, Massachusetts Poets from Massachusetts Businesspeople from Worcester, Massachusetts American art collectors American expatriates in Austria People with schizophrenia 20th-century American businesspeople