Ada Laura Fonda Snell (May 11, 1870 – April 18, 1972) was an American poet and college professor. She taught English at

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...

from 1892 until 1938.

Early life and education

Ada Laura Fonda Snell was born in

Geneva, New York Geneva is a City (New York), city in Ontario County, New York, Ontario and Seneca County, New York, Seneca counties in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is at the northern end of Seneca Lake (New York), Seneca Lake; all land port ...

, the daughter of Marvin Snell and Sarah Eleanor Fonda Snell. Her family ran a dairy farm. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1892. She earned a master's degree from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, and completed doctoral studies in English at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, with a dissertation titled ''Pause and the Formation of Rhythmical Units: A Study based on a Consideration of Milton's Blank Verse'' (1916). under the advice of

Fred Newton Scott Fred Newton Scott (1860–1931) was an Americans, American writer, educator and rhetorician. Scott received his A.B., A.M, and Ph.D from the University of Michigan. In the preface to ''The New Composition Rhetoric'', Newton Scott states “that ...

Career

Snell began teaching at Mount Holyoke College in 1892. "Young students, I have discovered in my teaching of English, are very loath to believe that any great writer ever contemplated problems of form," she wrote in 1913; "they like to think that the commas, capitals, spelling and content are all the happy result of genius." She retired as English department head in 1938, but remained involved in the campus community. Snell's academic work involved studies of poetic meters, using recordings and other new technologies. She was the author of ''Pause: A Study of its Nature and its Rhythmical Function in Verse, Especially Blank Verse'' (1918), ''Mount Holyoke College Verse'' (1928), ''Palatines along the Mohawk and their church in the wilderness'' (1948), ''Joyful Songs: Carols of the Nativity'' (1958), ''The First Noel: Animal Songs of the Nativity'' (1958), and ''Where Birds Sing'' (1959, with Freda Reiter). She also edited

Thomas Henry Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The storie ...

's ''Autobiography and Selected Essays'' (1909), the ''Riverside Essays'' series (1913, 1914), and a collection of Katherine Irene Glascock's poetry. Snell was a member of the

Modern Language Association The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st ...

and the

National Council of Teachers of English The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is a United States professional organization dedicated to "improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education. Since 1911, NCTE has provided a forum ...

.Mount Holyoke College,
Llamarada
' (1918 yearbook): 36. In 1942 she was honored by the Mount Holyoke Alumnae Association with a medal, and the citation "One of the great teachers of Mount Holyoke tradition. She explored the difficult field of metrical structure with the spirit of a scientist."

Personal life

Snell died in 1972, aged 101 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Snell, Ada L. F. 1870 births 1972 deaths American centenarians Mount Holyoke College faculty Mount Holyoke College alumni University of Michigan alumni Yale University alumni 20th-century American poets People from Geneva, New York American women poets Poets from New York (state) 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American women educators 20th-century American educators