Sara Teasdale
Poet
1844 - 1933
I don’t remember when exactly I fell in love with Sara Teasdale. I think it was during the era when I was being haunted by Edna St. Vincent Millay. She was a contemporary of Millay. I wanted to know more. I read of “this other woman” (Sara Teasdale) of the time who was another tragic figure.
Back then I was focusing on a different person each month and in Sara’s month, I studied May Sarton, too.
Sara was a big part of my inspiration for my “Women’s Sphere?” art project which also inspired the A to Z in Women’s Literary History AND what I am creating on June 6 and 7 which still doesn’t have a name, but which is celebrating the writing of The Yellow Wallpaper, since it was scribed by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in two days – June 6 and 7, 1890.
Here are some nitty gritty facts about Miss Teasdale’s life:
She was born in 1884 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Remember K is for Kate Chopin? She was also born in St. Louis!)
She was unhealthy as a child so she didn’t start school until she was nine-years-old. She came from a wealthy family who was able to both provide for her and take care of all her needs. She went to the prestigious Hosmer Hall, an all girls school in St. Louis. She created a women’s literary society with some of her teen friends which they called “The Potters.” They even published their own literary journal The Potters Wheel where Sara received her first publishing credits.
She looked to several different poets as well as actress Eleanora Duse as role models and inspiration for her writing. Among her favorites were Christina Rossetti, Mary Robinson and Emily Dickinson.
She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1918 (which was then called Columbia University Poetry Prize).
Many of her lyrics are love poems inspired by two men: one she married (Ernst Filsinger) and one who adored her and ended his life with suicide in 1931 (Vaclev Lindsay).She divorced Filsinger, who offered financial stability in addition to her wealthy family, in 1929. Some sources say it is her seven year friendship with young poet Margaret Conklin that caused the marital split.
On January 29, 1933, Sara Teasdale followed other creative people including her one-time love, Vaclev Lindsay, into suicide. She overdosed on barbiturates and climbed into the bathtub, yet another tragedy upon yet another creative woman.
This blog post is an entry in the A to Z Challenge. Each day in April (except Sundays) I will be featuring a woman in literary history. If you click on the logo below, you will be introduced to the writing of more than a thousand bloggers writing on a wide variety of topics in April, all from A to Z!
Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. She teaches a teleclass/ecourse "Discover the Power of Writing & Telling Engaging, Enlightening Stories" which begins again April 19, 2012. Find details by clicking this link.
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