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Biography of Margaret Widdemer

American Poet (1884—1978)

Photo of Margaret Widdemer

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 (later dubbed the Pulitzer 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.

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