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
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 meani ...
'' magazine, first published in 1912. As a supporter of the poets
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 ...
,
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
,
H. D.
Hilda Doolittle (September 10, 1886 – September 27, 1961) was an American modernist poet, novelist, and memoirist who wrote under the name H.D. throughout her life. Her career began in 1911 after she moved to London and co-founded the ...
,
T. S. Eliot,
William Carlos Williams,
Carl Sandburg
Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg ...
,
Max Michelson and others, Monroe played an important role in the development of modern poetry. Her correspondence with early twentieth century poets provides a wealth of information on their thoughts and motives.
Biography
Monroe was born in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...
. She read at an early age; her father, a lawyer, had a large library that provided refuge from domestic discord.
In her autobiography, ''
A Poet's Life: Seventy Years in a Changing World'', published two years after her death, Monroe recalls: "I started in early with Shakespeare, Byron, Shelley, with Dickens and Thackeray; and always the book-lined library gave me a friendly assurance of companionship with lively and interesting people, gave me friends of the spirit to ease my loneliness."
Career
Monroe graduated from the
Visitation Academy of
Georgetown, D.C.
Georgetown is a historic neighborhood, and commercial and entertainment district located in Northwest Washington, D.C., situated along the Potomac River. Founded in 1751 in the Province of Maryland, the port of Georgetown predated the establish ...
, in 1879. She was later recognized as a very talented author for her age. Her prose piece published in 1899 in the
Atlantic Monthly
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
, The ''Grand Canyon of the Colorado'', was considered better poetry than her most notable poem, ''I love my life''.
Driven by fears of posthumous anonymity, she proclaimed after graduation her determination to become "great and famous" as a poet or playwright. In the ''
Dictionary of Literary Biography'', Judith Paterson quoted her as saying, "I cannot remember when to die without leaving some memorable record did not seem to me a calamity too terrible to be borne."
She afterward devoted herself to literary work. Monroe in her biography said, 'I have sense of consecration that made me think I would prefer art to life'.
Though ''
Century'' magazine published her poem, "With a Copy of Shelley," in 1889, she became disillusioned by the limited earnings available for poets, saying: "The minor painter or sculptor was honored with large annual awards in our greatest cities, while the minor poet was a joke of the paragraphers, subject to the popular prejudice that his art thrived best on starvation in a garret."
She became a freelance correspondent to the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'', and was commissioned to write a commemorative ode to be read at the opening ceremonies for the
World's Fair
A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...
commemorating the 400th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America.
,
Her financial hardships were alleviated after she sued the
New York World
The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under pub ...
for publishing the Colombian ode poem without her consent and she was awarded $5,000 in a settlement.
With help from publisher
Hobart Chatfield-Taylor, Monroe convinced one hundred prominent Chicago business leaders to sponsor the magazine ''Poetry'' by each committing to fifty dollars for a five-year subscription. The $5,000, coupled with her own settlement, was enough to launch the magazine on September 23, 1912, while upholding its promise to contributors of adequate payment for all published work.
Monroe was editor for its first two years without salary, while simultaneously working as an art critic for the ''Chicago Tribune''. By 1914, the magazine work became too much for her to accomplish while working other jobs, so she resigned from the ''Tribune'' and accepted a salary of fifty dollars per month from the magazine. For more than ten years she maintained herself on this stipend, raising it to one hundred dollars per month in 1925.
Her extensive papers and correspondence as editor of ''Poetry'' magazine, illuminate the authorial process and the birth of modern poetry.
Don Share, who became editor of ''Poetry'' in 2013, writes that Monroe seemed to have a "sixth sense" about the poetry she published. Monroe, herself, wrote and preferred poems rooted in 19th century tradition, but in her magazine, "that countervailing sixth sense allowed her to make literary history. She invented a box, you could say — and promptly set to work thinking outside it. Her magazine was, therefore, like she was: unpredictable, difficult, and infuriating," but she never wavered in her assessment of progressive American culture as a democratic triumph.
She continued editing the magazine until she died in
Arequipa
Arequipa (; Aymara and qu, Ariqipa) is a city and capital of province and the eponymous department of Peru. It is the seat of the Constitutional Court of Peru and often dubbed the "legal capital of Peru". It is the second most populated city ...
,
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = National seal
, national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
, at age 75, while on her way to climb
Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru on a mountain range.UNESCO World Heritage Centre. It is located in the Machupicchu District within Urubamba Province above the Sacred Valley, whic ...
. The high altitudes reportedly triggered a
cerebral hemorrhage
Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...
, which caused her death.
Monroe was a member of the
Eagle's Nest Art Colony in
Ogle County, Illinois, and is mentioned in
Erik Larson's ''
The Devil in the White City''. In 2011, Monroe was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.
Family
Monroe was the sister-in-law of Chicago architect
John Wellborn Root, and wrote his biography.
Works
* cantata for the opening of the
Chicago Auditorium (1889)
* ''Columbian Ode'' composed for the opening of the
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...
, with George Whitefield Chadwick (1892)
* ''Valeria and other Poems'' (1892)
* ''John Wellborn Root: A Study of His Life and Work'' (1896)
* ''The Passing Show - Five Modern Plays in Verse'' (1903)
* ''Dance of the Seasons'' (1911)
* ''You and I - Poems'' (1914)
* ''The New Poetry: Anthology of 20th Century Verse'' (1921)
* ''Poets And Their Art'' (1926)
* ''A Poet's Life - Seventy Years in a Changing World'' (1938)
Notes
References
*
*
External links
Monroe Family Papersa
the Newberry Library
*
*
*
Poetry FoundationPoetry Magazine''Poetry: A Magazine of Verse''a
The Modernist Journals Project(searchable digital edition from October 1912 to December 1922)
at
the Newberry Library
*
PennSound: 1932 recordings of Harriet MonroeExample of a Monroe book review*, full text, at Google books
*2 short radio episodes
' and
' by Harriet Monroe from
California Legacy Project.
Guide to the Modern Poetry Collection of Miscellaneous Manuscripts 1920-1964at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research CenterGuide to the Harriet Monroe Papers 1873-1944at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Monroe, Harriet
1860 births
1936 deaths
American women poets
American magazine editors
American literary critics
Women literary critics
Writers from Chicago
American women non-fiction writers
Women magazine editors
American women critics