Janet Lewis

Janet Lewis (1899 - 1998) was an American author.

Life and work

Lewis, born in Chicago, Illinois, and a graduate of the University of Chicago, where she was a member of a literary circle including Glenway Wescott, Elizabeth Madox Roberts, and her future husband Yvor Winters. She was an active member of the University of Chicago Poetry Club. She taught at both Stanford University in California, and at the University of California at Berkeley. [PoetryFoundation.org Archive [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=4071] ]

She wrote "The Wife of Martin Guerre" (1941) which is the tale of one man's deception and another’s cowardice. Her first novel was "The Invasion: A Narrative of Events Concerning the Johnson Family of St. Mary's" (1932). Other prose works include "The Trial of Soren Qvist" (1947), "The Ghost of Monsieur Scarron" (1959), and the volume of short fiction, "Good-bye, Son, and Other Stories" (1946). [Stanford University Libraries & Academic Information Resources--American Literary Studies: Janet Lewis Papers [http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/ablit/amerlit/lewis.html] ]

Lewis was also a poet, and concentrated on imagery, rhythms, and lyricism to achieve her goal. [PoetryFoundation.org Archive [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=4071] ] Among her works are "The Indians in the Woods" (1922), and the later collections "Poems, 1924-1944" (1950), and "Poems Old and New, 1918-1978" (1981). [Stanford University Libraries & Academic Information Resources--American Literary Studies: Janet Lewis Papers [http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/ablit/amerlit/lewis.html] ] She also collaborated with Alva Henderson, a composer for whom she wrote three libretti and several song texts. [Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library--Kathleen Foster Campbell Papers [http://webtext.library.yale.edu/xml2html/beinecke.campbellkf.nav.html] ]

She married to American poet and critic Yvor Winters in 1926. Together they founded Gyroscope, a literary magazine, which lasted from 1929 until 1931. [Stanford University Libraries & Academic Information Resources--American Literary Studies: Janet Lewis Papers [http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/ablit/amerlit/lewis.html] ]

Books

Poetry

* "The Indians in the Woods" published as Manikin Number One, Bonn, Germany, Monroe Wheeler, no date.
* "The Wheel in Midsummer" Lynn, Mass, The Lone Gull, 1927.
* "The Earth-Bound' Aurora, New York, Wells College Press, 1946
* "Poems 1924 – 1944" Denver, Alan Swallow, 1950
* "The Ancient Ones" Portola Valley, California: No Dead Lines, 1979
* "The Indians in the Woods" 2nd edition with new preface, Palo-Alto California, Matrix Press, 1980.
* "Poems Old and New 1918 – 1978" Chicago/Athens, Ohio: Swallow Press / Ohio University Press 1981
* "Late Offerings" Florence, Ky, Robert L. Barth, 1988
* "Janet and Deloss: Poems and Pictures" San Diego, Brighton Press 1990
* "The Dear Past and other poems 1919 – 1994" Edgewood Ky, Robert L. Barth, 1994
* "The Selected Poems of Janet Lewis" thens Ohio, Swallow Press / Ohio University Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0804010238.

Notes

External links

* [http://webtext.library.yale.edu/xml2html/beinecke.campbellkf.nav.html Kathleen Foster Campbell Papers] at Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.