Alice Dunbar Nelson was born Alice Ruth Moore on July 19, 1875, in the bustling, sun-drenched city of New Orleans, Louisiana, a place where the Mississippi River whispered stories of resilience and reinvention into the ears of its diverse inhabitants. She died on September 18, 1935, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the age of sixty, her heart finally succumbing to the strains of a life lived with fierce passion and…
“The few lighter persons in the community drew together; we were literally thrown upon each other, whether we liked or not.”
Neighbourhood:
African American Poets, American Poets, Harlem Renaissance, LGBTQ+ Poets, Social Justice Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Despair
Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, who wrote under the enduringly cheerful name Susan Coolidge, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on 29 January 1835, and died in Newport, Rhode Island, on 9 April 1905. She occupies a central place in the history of American children’s literature, though her reputation has often rested too narrowly on a single title: What Katy Did (1872). That novel and its sequels made her one of the best-known writ…
Neighbourhood:
American Poets, Children's Verse, Victorian Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Spirituality, Wonder, Peace
