William Marion Reedy (1862 – July 28, 1920) was a

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

-based editor best known for his promotion of the poets

Sara Teasdale Sara Teasdale (August 8, 1884January 29, 1933) was an American lyric poet. She was born Sarah Trevor Teasdale in St. Louis, Missouri, and used the name Sara Teasdale Filsinger after her marriage in 1914. In 1918 she won a Pulitzer Prize for her ...

Edgar Lee Masters Edgar Lee Masters (August 23, 1868 – March 5, 1950) was an American attorney, poet, biographer, and dramatist. He is the author of ''Spoon River Anthology'', ''The New Star Chamber and Other Essays'', ''Songs and Satires'', ''The Great V ...

, and

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 ...

to the audience of his newspaper, ''

Reedy's Mirror ''Reedy's Mirror'' was a literary journal in St. Louis, Missouri in the fin de siècle era.Joseph Griffin''The Small Canvas: Introduction to Dreiser's Short Stories'' Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1985, p. 36 It billed itself "The Mid-West ...

''. Politically, Reedy was a liberal

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

and advocated

Georgist Georgism, also called in modern times Geoism, and known historically as the single tax movement, is an economic ideology holding that, although people should own the value they produce themselves, the economic rent derived from land—including ...

economics.

Biography

Reedy was born in St. Louis in 1862. He spent his childhood in Kerry Patch and later attended

St. Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private Jesuit research university with campuses in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and Madrid, Spain. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Mississip ...

. He began his career as a writer's assistant at the ''Missouri Republican''. He then worked for the ''

St. Louis Globe-Democrat The ''St. Louis Globe-Democrat'' was originally a daily print newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1852 until 1986. When the trademark registration on the name expired, it was then used as an unrelated free historically themed paper. Orig ...

'' before starting his acclaimed tenure at the ''Mirror'' in 1893. He became owner of the ''Mirror'', where he published the work of up-and-coming poets like Sandburg, Teasdale and Masters. Reedy had an eye for talented new writers, often publishing writers before they gained widespread recognition. He published Edgar Lee Masters' poetry in 1914, work that later formed the ''Spoon River Anthology''. The poet and editor, Orrick Johns, wrote in ''Time of Our Lives'' that "Reedy was the only figure to give St. Louis a literary character in the eyes of the rest of the country between 1900 and 1920. Reedy died unexpectedly in San Francisco on July 28, 1920.

References

External links

William Marion Reedy Papers
at

Newberry Library The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities and located on Washington Square in Chicago, Illinois. It has been free and open to the public since 1887. Its collections encompass a variety of topics rela ...

* Max Putzel Papers Relating to William Marion Reedy and The Mirror. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Reedy, William Marion 1862 births 1920 deaths Writers from St. Louis American newspaper editors Georgists