Janet Loxley Lewis (August 17, 1899 – December 1, 1998) was an American

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 ...

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 ...

, and librettist.

Biography

Lewis was born in Chicago, Illinois, and was a graduate of 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 ...

, where she was a member of a literary circle that 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 ...

, Elizabeth Madox Roberts, and her future husband

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 ...

. She was an active member of the University of Chicago Poetry Club. She taught at both

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, and the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

. She wrote ''

The Wife of Martin Guerre ''The Wife of Martin Guerre'' (first published 1941) is a short novel by American writer Janet Lewis based on the story of Martin Guerre, the 16th-century French peasant who apparently returned home to his wife after a long absence but was late ...

'' (1941) which is the tale of one man's deception and another's cowardice. Her first novel was ''The Invasion: A Narrative of Events Concerning the Johnston Family of St. Mary's'' (1932). Other prose works include ''The Trial of Soren Qvist'' (1947), ''The Ghost of Monsieur Scarron'' (1959), and the volume of short fiction, ''Good-bye, Son, and Other Stories'' (1946).Stanford University Libraries & Academic Information Resources—American Literary Studies: Janet Lewis Paper

/ref> Lewis was also a poet, and concentrated on imagery, rhythms, and lyricism to achieve her goal. Among her works are ''The Indians in the Woods'' (1922), and the later collections ''Poems, 1924–1944'' (1950), and ''Poems Old and New, 1918–1978'' (1981). She also collaborated with Alva Henderson, a composer for whom she wrote three libretti and several song texts. She married the American poet and critic

in 1926. Together they founded ''Gyroscope'', a literary magazine that lasted from 1929 until 1931. Lewis was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

in 1992. She died at her home in

Los Altos, California Los Altos (; Spanish for "The Heights") is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 31,625 according to the 2020 census. Most of the city's growth occurred between 1950 and 1980. Originally a ...

, in 1998, at the age of 99.

Bibliography

Fiction

* ''The Invasion: A Narrative of Events Concerning the Johnston Family of St. Mary's'' (1932) * ''

'' (1941) * ''Good-bye, Son, and Other Stories'' (1946) * ''The Trial of Soren Qvist'' (1947) * ''The Ghost of Monsieur Scarron'' (1959) * ''Against a Darkening Sky'' (1985)

Poetry

* ''The Indians in the Woods''. Published by

Monroe Wheeler Monroe Wheeler (13 February, 1899 – 14 August, 1988) was an American publisher and museum coordinator whose relationship with the novelist and poet Glenway Wescott lasted from 1919 until Wescott's death in 1987. Biography Wheeler was born in Ev ...

, as ''Manikin'' Number One,

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

, Germany, n.d.

922 __NOTOC__ Year 922 ( CMXXII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Summer – Battle of Constantinople: Emperor Romanos I sends Byza ...

* ''The Wheel in Midsummer'' Lynn, Mass, The Lone Gull, 1927. * ''The Earth-Bound' Aurora, New York, Wells College Press, 1946 * ''Poems 1924 – 1944'' Denver, Alan Swallow, 1950 * ''The Ancient Ones'' Portola Valley, California: No Dead Lines, 1979 * ''The Indians in the Woods'' 2nd edition with new preface, Palo-Alto California, Matrix Press, 1980. * ''Poems Old and New 1918 – 1978'' Chicago/Athens, Ohio: Swallow Press / Ohio University Press 1981 * ''Late Offerings'' Florence, Ky, Robert L. Barth, 1988 * ''Janet and Deloss: Poems and Pictures'' San Diego, Brighton Press 1990 * ''The Dear Past and other poems 1919 – 1994'' Edgewood Ky, Robert L. Barth, 1994 * ''The Selected Poems of Janet Lewis'' Athens, Ohio, Swallow Press / Ohio University Press, 2000, .

Libretti

*''The Wife of Martin Guerre'', opera in three acts after her novel, music by

William Bergsma William Laurence Bergsma (April 1, 1921 – March 18, 1994) was an American composer and teacher. He was long associated with Juilliard School, where he taught composition, until he moved to the University of Washington as head of their music ...

(1956) *''The Last of the Mohicans'', opera in two acts after

the novel ''The Novel'' (1991) is a novel written by American author James A. Michener. A departure from Michener's better known historical fiction, ''The Novel'' is told from the viewpoints of four different characters involved in the life and work of ...

James Fenimore Cooper James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonist and Indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought h ...

, music by Alva Henderson (1976) *''The Birthday of the Infanta'', opera after the story by

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

, music by Malcolm Seagrave (1979) *''The Swans'', opera in three acts after the

Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...

, music by Alva Henderson (1986) *''The Legend'', opera after her novel ''The Invasion'', music by Bain Murray *''Mulberry Street'', opera after "The Room Across the Hall" by O. Henry, music by Alva Henderson (1988); later incorporated as Act II of ''West of Washington Square''

Notes

External links

Kathleen Foster Campbell Papers
at Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Janet Lewis Oral History
conducted by Margo Davis (1977)
Enduring Imagist: An Interview with Janet Lewis (1899–1998)
conducted by Catherine J. Kordich and Michael Dylan Welch (1997, 1998) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Janet 1899 births 1998 deaths 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American poets American women poets American women short story writers American women novelists People from Los Altos, California Stanford University Department of English faculty University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty University of Chicago alumni Writers from Chicago Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area American opera librettists Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 20th-century American women writers Women librettists 20th-century American short story writers Novelists from California Novelists from Illinois Women opera librettists