Untermeyer, Jean Starr. [1886-1970] (1) Born at Zanesville, Ohio, in 1886. Educated in private schools of New York City and in special courses at Columbia University. Married Louis Untermeyer, the poet, 1907. Mrs. Untermeyer did not begin writing until the free verse movement was at its height, but she has done some excellent work and made a place for herself in the movement. Her volume of verse, "Growing Pains", was published in 1918.
Untermeyer, Louis. [1885-1977] (3) Born in New York City, Oct. 1, 1885. Educated in the public schools of that city. Mr. Untermeyer, in addition to writing poetry, has done much work in book reviewing, particularly for the `Chicago Evening Post', and is the author of a critical book, "The New Era in American Poetry", 1919, which discusses in a stimulating manner the work of a group of poets of the day. His own volumes of poems are: "First Love", 1911; "Challenge", 1914; "And Other Poets: A Book of Parodies", 1916; "These Times", 1917; "Including Horace", another volume of parodies, 1919. Mr. Untermeyer has made an excellent translation of the "Poems of Heinrich Heine", 1917, and has edited a school anthology of "Modern American Poetry", 1919.
Walsh, Thomas. [1875-1928] (2) Born in Brooklyn, Oct. 14, 1875. Educated at Georgetown University, where he took the degree of Ph.D. in 1892. Spent the years from 1892 to 1895, at Columbia University. In 1917 he received the honorary degree of Litt.D. from Georgetown University and of LL.D. from the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of "The Prison Ships", 1909; "The Pilgrim Kings", 1915; "Gardens Overseas", 1917; and is the translator of a collection of the poems of the Nicaraguan poet, Ruben Dario. Mr. Walsh is much interested in Spanish literature and art and much of his work turns upon these themes.
Wattles, Willard. [1888-1950] (3) Born in Bayneville, Kan., June 8, 1888. Educated at the University of Kansas, where he took the degree of A.B. in 1909 (Phi Beta Kappa) and of A.M. in 1911. Mr. Wattles took up the profession of teaching and was instructor in English at the High School, Leavenworth, Kan., 1910-11, leaving this position to go East and become one of the staff of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, where he remained until 1914, when he returned to his alma mater, the University of Kansas. He is still assistant in the English department of that college. He has published as yet but one collection, "Lanterns in Gethsemane", 1917, a volume of poems pertaining to the life of Christ, but not written in the usual vein of religious poetry. He is also the compiler of "Sunflowers", a book of Kansas poems, 1916.
Wheelock, John Hall. [1886-1978] (4) Born at Far Rockaway, N.Y., in 1886. He took the degree of A.B. from Harvard University in 1908 and spent the next two years in Germany, studying during 1909 at Gottingen and during 1910 at the University of Berlin. Since his return to America he has been connected with the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons. His first volume, "The Human Fantasy", 1911, attracted attention by the faithfulness with which it depicted the motley life of New York. His second was "The Beloved Adventure", 1912; followed by "Love and Liberation", 1913, and "Dust and Light", 1919. The last volume, from which the selections in this anthology are taken, contains some of Mr. Wheelock's finest lyrical work, work full of the passion for beauty.
Widdemer, Margaret. [1884-1978] (4) Born at Doylestown, Pa. Educated by private teachers and at the Drexel Institute Library School of Philadelphia, where she graduated in 1909. Attention was first drawn to her work by a child-labor poem, "The Factories", which was widely quoted, the social movement in poetry being then at its height. Miss Widdemer is both poet and novelist, having published several books in each field. In poetry her work includes: "The Factories with Other Lyrics", 1915; and "The Old Road to Paradise", 1918. This volume shared with that of Carl Sandburg the Columbia University Prize of $500 for the best book of poems published in 1918. In the same year Miss Widdemer was married to Robert Haven Schauffler, author of "Scum o' the Earth". She is a poet of much delicacy, and several of her poems, notably "The Dark Cavalier" in this volume, are among the best lyric work of the period. [Margaret Widdemer won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1919 for "Old Road to Paradise". (Same as the Columbia University Prize listed above.) — A. L., 1998.]
Wilkinson, Florence (Mrs. Wilfrid Muir Evans). [1878-?] (1) <F. W. Evans> Born at Tarrytown, N.Y. Miss Wilkinson studied at Chicago University and other American colleges and afterwards at the Sorbonne and the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris. She is the author of several novels, of which the best known are: "The Lady of the Flag Flowers", "The Strength of the Hills", and "The Silent Door"; and also of one or two volumes of plays, but her best work is found in her poetry of which she has written two volumes: "The Far Country", 1906, and "The Ride Home", 1913.
Wilkinson, Marguerite Ogden Bigelow. [1883-1928] (2) Born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Nov. 15, 1883. Educated at Northwestern University. Married James Wilkinson, 1909. Author of "In Vivid Gardens", 1911; "By a Western Wayside", 1912; "New Voices", a critical study of present-day poetry, with a supplementary anthology, 1919; and "Bluestone", a collection of her own poems, 1920. The title poem of this volume was awarded a prize of $150 by the Poetry Society of America for the best poem read at its meetings during 1919. Mrs. Wilkinson did a great deal of journalistic work, having conducted literary departments on various journals.
Wood, Clement. [1888-1950] (3) Born at Tuscaloosa, Ala., Sept. 1, 1888, but reared in Birmingham, Ala., where he attended Taylor's Academy and Birmingham High School. Received his degree of A.B. from the University of Alabama in 1909, and of LL.B. from Yale University in 1911. He returned to his home city of Birmingham and practiced law for several years, becoming assistant city attorney of Birmingham in 1912, and police magistrate of the Central District of Birmingham, 1912-13. The following year he came to New York for advanced work in sociology and literature and became a contributor of poems, essays, and short stories to various magazines. In 1917 he was awarded the first prize of $250 by the Newark Committee of One Hundred, as part of their Anniversary Celebration, for his poem, "The Smithy of God", and in 1919 he was also awarded one of the three Lyric Society Prizes, of $500 each, for his poem, "Jehovah". In 1914 Mr. Wood married Mildred M. Cummer, of Buffalo, N.Y., who is also a writer. In poetry he is the author of the following books: "Glad of Earth", 1917; "The Earth Turns South", 1919; and "Jehovah", 1920. He has also written a novel called "Mountain", published in 1920.
—— Rittenhouse, Jessie Belle. [1869-1948] Jessie Rittenhouse is best known as an editor and for her compilations, but she was also a poet — though she did not include her own work in her compilations. Her compilations and criticisms include: "The younger American poets", 1904; "The Little Book of Modern Verse", 1913; "The Little Book of American Poets, 1787-1900", 1915; "The Second Book of Modern Verse", 1919; "The Little Book of Modern British Verse: One Hundred Poets since Henley", 1924; "The Third Book of Modern Verse", 1927. Her own works include: "The Door of Dreams", 1918; "The Lifted Cup", 1921; "The Secret Bird", 1930; "My House of Life; an Autobiography", 1934; and "The Moving Tide; New and Selected Lyrics", 1939. Her compilations went through numerous printings, and are still a good guide to the poetry of the era. ——