Mary Sinton Leitch
Mary Sinton Leitch (7 September 1876 – 20 August 1954)[1][2] was an American writer, poet, and editor, who helped to found the Poetry Society of Virginia.[1]
Personal life
Mary Sinton Lewis was born in New York City in 1876, daughter of Charlton Thomas and Nancy Dunlap McKeen Lewis.[1][3] She attended Smith College and Columbia University, and studied in France and Germany.[4][1][5]
She married John David Leitch in 1907, and they settled in Lynnhaven, Virginia.[1][6][7] Their home became, according to The Poetry Review "a centre for much of the poetry life of the Virginia tidewater."[8] They had a daughter and a son: Charlton Leitch Harrell and John Leitch.[9] She was a longtime friend and correspondent of illustrator and author J. J. Lankes.[10]
Leitch died in August 1954 and is buried in Virginia Beach, Virginia.[1]
Career
She worked as a women's prison inspector in New York City, before becoming a contributing editor for various magazines and newspapers.[1] She was also an assistant editor of The Historians’ History of the World.[6] She remained active as an editor, including compiling the anthology Lyric Virginia Today, a collection of poetry by living Virginians.[1][11][12] Writing, however, became her principal focus.[1]
Between 1922 and 1952, Leitch published seven collections of poetry and short fiction.[1] She contributed to the Virginia Quarterly Review,[13] Harper's Magazine, Poet Lore, The Personalist, and many others.[14][15] In The Music Makers: an Anthology of Recent American Poetry (1945) Stanton Coblentz described Leitch's work as "predominantly of a lyrical nature, sometimes touched with graceful whimsies."[11] She was called "a gifted lyricist".[16]
Leitch was a founder of the Poetry Society of Virginia, becoming its president in 1933, and co-president 1944-1945.[1]
Bibliography
- The Wagon and the Star (1922)
- The Unrisen Morrow (1926)
- The Black Moon (1929)
- Spider Architect (1937)
- From Invisible Mountains (1943)
- Himself and I (1950)
- Nightingales on the Moon (1952)
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Leitch, Mary Sinton, 1876-1954 | ArchivesSpace Public Interface". aspace.lib.vt.edu. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
- ↑ "Mary Sinton Leitch (1876-1954)". Find a Grave. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
- ↑ "Troth Announced of Miss Leitch". The New York Times. 7 January 1934. p. 4.
- ↑ Alumnae Association of Smith College (1923). Smith Alumnae Quarterly. College Archives Smith College Libraries. Alumnae Association of Smith College.
- ↑ Alumnae Association of Smith College (1929). Smith Alumnae Quarterly. College Archives Smith College Libraries. Alumnae Association of Smith College.
- 1 2 Worthington Smith, Lewis (1929). Women's Poetry To-day. Internet Archive. George Sully & Company.
- ↑ John Erskine (1948). My Life as a Teacher. Internet Archive. J. B. Lippincott Company.
- ↑ "Dynamics of American Poetry: LXXVI". The Poetry Review: 77. January 1939.
- ↑ "Oral History Interview with Harrell, Charlton L. and Leitch, John | Old Dominion University Libraries Digital Collections". olddomuni.access.preservica.com. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
- ↑ "Collection: Mary Sinton Leitch Correspondence with J. J. Lankes | ArchivesSpace Public Interface". aspace.lib.vt.edu. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
- 1 2 Coblentz, Stanton (1945). The Music Makers: an Anthology of Recent American Poetry. Internet Archive. Bernard Ackerman.
- ↑ Scribner's Magazine. Internet Archive. Out-of-copyright. April 1933.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - ↑ "Mary Sinton Leitch | VQR". www.vqronline.org. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
- ↑ Leitch, Mary Sinton (1922). The Waggon and the Star. The Library of Congress. Boston, B. J. Brimmer company.
- ↑ "Works by Mary Sinton Leitch - PhilPapers". philpapers.org. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
- ↑ Virginia: A Guide To The Old Dominion. New York: Oxford University Press. 1941. p. 166.