Madeline Mason-Manheim (also known by the pseudonym Tyler Mason) (1908-1990) was an American poet and translator. Her work was also published under the names Madeline Mason and Tyler Mason. She was married to the outsider artist and novelist Malcolm McKesson.

Early life

Mason-Manheim was born into a socially prominent family in New York on January 24, 1908 (though some sources list her year of birth as 1902 or 1905).

Career and social life

Her first collection of poetry, ''Hill Fragments'', was published in 1925, and featured an introduction from

Arthur Symons Arthur William Symons (28 February 186522 January 1945) was a British poet, critic and magazine editor. Life Born in Milford Haven, Wales, to Cornish parents, Symons was educated privately, spending much of his time in France and Italy. In 1884 ...

, as well as illustrations by Kahlil Gibran. She continued her association with Gibran by translating his work ''The Prophet'' into French; this translation was published in 1926. In the 1930s, Mason-Manheim was a regular in the "Social" pages of the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

In 1942, Mason-Manheim married Malcolm McKesson, whom she had met at a debutante ball. McKesson claimed that the union was never consummated; however, the pair remained married until Mason-Manheim's death in 1990. Mason-Manheim wrote ''The Cage of Years'', which was published in 1949. The work featured illustrations by Theodore Conrath and is held in the collection of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. Mason-Manheim devised the "Mason sonnet" in 1953. This poetic form is composed of fourteen lines, divided into an octave and a sestet, with the pivot coming after the octave. The lines are in

iambic pentameter Iambic pentameter () is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called "feet". "Iambi ...

, with rhyme scheme ABCABCBC DBADDA.

Death and legacy

Mason-Manheim's papers are held by the Briscoe Center for American History 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 ...

Works

*Mason-Manheim, Madeline. ''Hill Fragments''. London: Cecil Palmer (1925). *Mason, Tyler and Edward M. House. ''Riding for Texas.'' New York: Reynal & Hitchcock (1936). *Mason, Madeline. ''The Cage of Years''. New York: The Bond Wheelright Company (1949).

References

External links