Elizabeth Madox Roberts (October 30, 1881 – March 13, 1941) was a

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

and

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 ...

, primarily known for her novels and stories set in central Kentucky's Washington County, including ''The Time of Man'' (1926), "My Heart and My Flesh," ''The Great Meadow'' (1930) and ''A Buried Treasure'' (1931). All of her writings are characterized by her distinct, rhythmic

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...

. Robert Penn Warren called "The Time of Man" a classic; the eminent Southern critic and ''

Southern Review ''The Southern Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine that was established by Robert Penn Warren in 1935 at the behest of Charles W. Pipkin and funded by Huey Long as a part of his investment in Louisiana State University. It publishes ficti ...

'' editor Lewis P. Simpson counted her among the half dozen major Southern renascence writers. Three book-length studies of her work, three collections of critical articles, a major conference on her 100th birthday, a collection of her unpublished poems, and a flourishing Roberts Society that generates 20-odd papers at its annual April conferences have yet to revive wide interest in her work.

Life

Born in Perryville, Kentucky, on October 30, 1881, Roberts grew up and spent most of her adult life in nearby

Springfield, Kentucky Springfield is a List of cities in Kentucky, home rule-class city in and county seat of Washington County, Kentucky, Washington County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 2,846 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. History Spring ...

. She was the second of eight children born to Simpson Roberts and Mary Elizabeth Brent Roberts, a

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

soldier turned engineer and a school teacher. Roberts attended high school in Covington, Kentucky, before enrolling briefly at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...

(then the State College of Kentucky) in 1900 but was forced to drop out after one semester on account of her poor health. For the next ten years, Roberts taught

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

in the Springfield area with her mother. Grave of Elizabeth Madox Roberts, Springfield, Ky

In 1910 she went to live for several years with her sister in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

and it was here that she contributed several poems to a little book of photographs of mountain flowers which would become her first published work. (''In the Great Steep's Garden'', privately printed, 1915.) On the recommendation of a professor friend, Roberts enrolled as a freshman at 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 ...

at the age of 36 in 1917, avidly studying

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

and fulfilling a lifelong dream of acquiring a college education. At the University of Chicago, she joined the Poetry club which included

Glenway Wescott Glenway Wescott (April 11, 1901 – February 22, 1987) was an American poet, novelist and essayist. A figure of the American expatriate literary community in Paris during the 1920s, Wescott was openly gay.Eric Haralson, ''Henry James and Queer Mo ...

Yvor Winters Arthur Yvor Winters (October 17, 1900 – January 25, 1968) was an American poet and literary critic. Life Winters was born in Chicago, Illinois and lived there until 1919 except for brief stays in Seattle and in Pasadena, where his grandparen ...

and

Janet Lewis Janet Loxley Lewis (August 17, 1899 – December 1, 1998) was an American novelist, poet, and librettist. Biography Lewis was born in Chicago, Illinois, and was a graduate of the University of Chicago, where she was a member of a literary circl ...

forming friendships and professional relationships. She graduated with a B.A. with honors in 1921,

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

, and was awarded the Fiske Prize for a group of poems she wrote which went on to be published as ''Under the Tree'' in 1922. After completing her education, Roberts returned to Springfield, Kentucky, where she would spend much of the rest of her life. Roberts' first novel, ''The Time of Man'' (1926), about the daughter of a Kentucky

tenant farmer A tenant farmer is a person (farmer or farmworker) who resides on land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management, ...

, garnered her an international reputation. She went on to write several more successful and critically acclaimed novels throughout the 1920s and 30s, including ''The Great Meadow'' (1930), an historical novel about the early settling of Kentucky; ''A Buried Treasure'' (1931), about a rural Kentucky farm family who finds a pot of gold; ''He Sent Forth a Raven'' (1935), which reflects the contrasting World War I era ideological forces, and ''Black Is My Truelove's Hair'' (1938), the story of a shamed woman's return to her home village and restoration. Roberts was diagnosed with terminal

Hodgkin's disease Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a type of lymphoma, in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, where multinucleated Reed–Sternberg cells (RS cells) are present in the patient's lymph nodes. The condition wa ...

in 1936. After this blow, Roberts began spending her winters in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

; however, she returned to Springfield for the warmer months, writing and meeting family responsibilities. During her career, Roberts saw her public recognition solidified by several major prizes, including the John Reed Memorial Prize in 1928, an O. Henry Award in 1930, and the Poetry Society of South Carolina's prize in 1931. ''The Time of Man'' was nominated for the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

in 1926; ''The Great Meadow'' was nominated for the same award in 1930.

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

spoke admiringly of her work, once calling her "that rare thing, a true artist". Roberts died in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

in 1941 and was returned home to Springfield for her burial. In 2012, Dr. Victoria Barker, an English professor at Carson-Newman College, edited a previously unpublished novel by Roberts titled ''Flood''.

Bibliography

*''In the Great Steep's Garden'' (1915) *''Under the Tree'' (1922) *''The Time of Man'' (1926) *''My Heart and My Flesh'' (1927) *''Jingling in the Wind'' (1928) *''The Great Meadow'' (1930) *''A Buried Treasure'' (1931) *''The Haunted Mirror'' (1932) *''He Sent Forth a Raven'' (1935) *''Black Is My True Love's Hair'' (1938) *''Song in the Meadow'' (1940) *''Not by Strange Gods'' (1941) *''Flood'' (2012)

References

Sources

*"Elizabeth Madox Roberts (1881-1941)" in ''Fifty Southern Writers After 1900'', Greenwood Press, 1987. *"Elizabeth Madox Roberts" in ''Notable American Women'', Belknap Press, 2005.
KYLIT: Elizabeth Madox Roberts

External links

Elizabeth Madox Roberts Society
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Digitized images of the Collection on Elizabeth Madox Roberts, 1913
housed at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center {{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Elizabeth Madox 1881 births 1941 deaths 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers American women novelists Deaths from cancer in Florida Deaths from Hodgkin lymphoma Kentucky women writers Novelists from Kentucky People from Perryville, Kentucky People from Springfield, Kentucky University of Chicago alumni Writers of American Southern literature