Elinor Wylie

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Elinor (Hoyt) Wylie (September 7, 1885 – December 16, 1928) was an American poet and novelist who was popular before World War II. She was a contemporary of Edna St. Vincent Millay.

In 1921, she published her first official collection of poetry, Nets to Catch the Wind, which gained her renown. Wylie was known for her sonnets, but her work was often overshadowed by her love life. She married three times, and had a son by her first husband. Her last marriage (in 1923) [1]was to William Rose Benét, who was part of her literary circle.

Her other volumes of poetry are "Black Armour," "Trivial Breath," and "Angels and Earthly Creatures."

Her novels include Jennifer Lorn (1923), The Venetian Glass Nephew (1925), The Orphan Angel (1926), and Mr. Hodge and Mr. Hazard (1928).

1 More about Elinor Wylie
2 Online Works
3 External links
4 Works

[edit] More about Elinor Wylie

Elinor Morton Hoyt was born in Somerville, New Jersey. Her grandfather was governor of Pennsylvania and she was raised in a socially prominent family in Washington, D.C. She eloped with Philip Hichborn, and later eloped with Horace Wylie. Her last marriage - in a short, flamboyant life - was to the writer William Rose Benet. Talented in several arts, she was torn between painting and writing. But her position inside Washington literary circles, particularly with John Dos Passos and Edmund Wilson, encouraged her writing efforts. She wrote eight novels and several books of poetry. Her first book, Incidental Numbers (1912), was published privately in England. The first of her books to bring her recognition was Nets to Catch the Wind (1921). Her other volumes of poetry include: Black Armour (1923), Trivial Breath (1928), Angels and Earthly Creatures(1929), and Collected Poems of Elinor Wylie (1932). Wylie's literary interests are largely conservative and formal, as demonstrated by her preoccupation with the sonnet. Heavily influenced by 16th and 17th century English poetics, Wylie also shares the Romantic's infatuation with nature and fantasy. Her last novel, Orphan Angel (1926) explores what Percy Bysshe Shelley's life would have been like if he had escaped his early death and moved to America.