Anne Knish, credited in some accounts with the dates 1916–1917, was not a historical poet in the ordinary biographical sense. She had no childhood, family, home town, education, intimate correspondence, or grave. Rather, she was a deliberately invented literary identity, one of the central masks in the Spectra hoax, a remarkable episode in American poetry during the first years of modernism. The name “Anne Knish” bel…
Neighbourhood:
American Poets, Imagist Poets, Light Verse Poets, Modernist Poets, Symbolist Poets
Emotional landscape: Fear, Sorrow, Despair
In the vibrant landscape of early twentieth-century modernism, where voices like Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and Gertrude Stein commanded attention, another figure moved through the artistic circles of London, Paris, and New York with equal brilliance but less recognition. Mina Loy (1882-1966) was a poet, artist, actress, and feminist whose radical verse challenged conventional notions of femininity, sexuality, and poeti…
“Day by day the new interests and activities of modern life are prolonging the youth of our souls.”
Neighbourhood:
American Poets, Decadent Poets, Modernist Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Wonder, Longing, Spirituality