Alice Corbin Henderson (April 16, 1881 – July 18, 1949) was an 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 ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

and poetry editor.

Early life and education

Alice Corbin was born in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

. Her mother died in 1884 and she was briefly sent to live with her father's cousin Alice Mallory Richardson in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

before returning to her father in

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

after his remarriage in 1891. Corbin attended the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, and in 1898 published a collection of poetry ''The Linnet Songs.'' In 1904 she rented a studio in the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago, and it was there she met her future husband, William Penhallow Henderson, a painter, architect and furniture designer, who was teaching there at the time. They married on October 14, 1905.

Career

In 1912 Henderson's second collection of poems, ''The Spinning Woman of the Sky'', was published, and she became assistant editor to

Harriet Monroe Harriet Monroe (December 23, 1860 – September 26, 1936) was an American editor, scholar, literary critic, poet, and patron of the arts. She was the founding publisher and long-time editor of ''Poetry'' magazine, first published in 1912. As a ...

at ''

Poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

'' magazine. She left Chicago for

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label=Tiwa language, Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. ...

in 1916, after having been diagnosed with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

. She continued working on ''Poetry'' by long distance until 1922. Like her husband, Henderson was devoted to the people and cultures of

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

and the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...

. She published ''Red Earth, Poems of New Mexico'' in 1920 and ''The Turquoise Trail, an Anthology of New Mexico Poetry'' in 1928. During the Depression, Corbin was Editor-in-Chief of the New Mexico Federal Writers' Project. In 1937, Henderson published ''Brothers of Light: The Penitentes of the Southwest'', for which her husband provided the illustrations. The book was reprinted by Yucca Tree Press in 1998 (). She was also a supporter of Native Americans civil rights and art. In 1920 she assembled a group of watercolor paintings by

Awa Tsireh Awa Tsireh (February 1, 1898 – March 30, 1955), also known as Alfonso Roybal and Cattail Bird, was a San Ildefonso Pueblo painter and artist in several genres including metalwork. He was part of the art movement known as the San Ildefons ...

for exhibition at the

Arts Club of Chicago Arts Club of Chicago is a private club and public exhibition space located in the Near North Side community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States, a block east of the Magnificent Mile, that exhibits international contemporar ...

. In 1937, Henderson helped found what is now called the

Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian is a museum devoted to Native American arts. It is located in Santa Fe, New Mexico and was founded in 1937 by Mary Cabot Wheelwright, who came from Boston, and Hastiin Klah, a Navajo singer and medici ...

, and became its curator.

Legacy

Many of her papers can be found in the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

at the

University of Texas 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 ...

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

. The Santa Fe home of her and her husband, at 555-57 Camino del Monte Sol, is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

as a contributing building in the

Camino del Monte Sol Historic District The Camino del Monte Sol Historic District, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is a historic district which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. The listing included 106 contributing buildings. It includes some works by archit ...

. With

References

External links

Alice Corbin Henderson
at ''PoetryFoundation.org''
Alice Corbin Henderson: An Inventory of Her Collection at the Harry Ransom Center
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 ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Alice Corbin 1881 births 1949 deaths 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers American women poets Poets from Missouri University of Chicago alumni Writers from Santa Fe, New Mexico Writers from St. Louis

Early life and education

Career

Legacy

See also

References

External links