Shirley Barker | |
---|---|
Born | Shirley Frances Barker April 4, 1911 |
Died | November 18, 1965
Penacook, New Hampshire, U.S. | (aged 54)
Nationality | American |
Education | Radcliffe College, Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science |
Occupations |
|
Shirley Frances Barker (April 4, 1911 – November 18, 1965) [1] was an American writer, poet, and librarian.
Barker was born in Farmington, New Hampshire. [2] She attended the University of New Hampshire, graduating with a B.A. in 1934 as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. [1] [3]: 689 While still an undergraduate, she won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition with her poetry collection The Dark Hills Under (1933). It was published with a foreword by Stephen Vincent Benét and was well reviewed. [1]
One of the judges had detected some literary affinities between her work and that of Robert Frost, so UNH President Edward M. Lewis asked Barker to send a copy of the collection to Frost, Lewis' friend and correspondent. [3]: 471 Frost was enraged by what he perceived as anti- Puritan and anti-theistic sentiments in Barker's poetry and bizarrely insisted that Barker was the illegitimate descendant of a person described in her poem "Portrait". [3]: 471–3 In what his biographer described as "a characteristic act of poetic retaliation", Frost penned the ribald poem "Pride of Ancestry" [3]: 473 and the religious poem "Not All There". [3]: 474 He did not tell Lewis of his objections to Barker's work [3]: 474–5 and there is no record that there was any correspondence between Frost and Barker. [3]: 690
Barker did not publish another book for sixteen years. She graduated with an A.M. in English from Radcliffe College in 1938 and a degree in library science from the Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science in 1941. Beginning in 1940, she worked as a librarian at the New York Public Library, primarily in the American history section. [1]
In 1949, she published her debut novel, Peace My Daughters, about the Salem witch trials, which she believed her ancestors had attended. [4] She wrote a series of successful formula historical novels, most of them set in her native New England and some with supernatural elements. [1] Two of her novels, Rivers Parting (1952) and Swear by Apollo (1959), were Literary Guild selections. [2] The success of these novels enabled her to leave the New York Public Library in 1953 and she moved to Concord, New Hampshire. [3]: 689
Barker was found inside a car in her garage in Penacook, New Hampshire, dead of carbon monoxide poisoning. The car windows were up and the gas tank was empty. Her death was ruled a suicide. [4] When Frost biographer Lawrance Thompson attempted to access her papers, he was told by her executor that they all "had disappeared under mysterious circumstances". [3]: 690 However, typescripts, galleys, and plate proofs of the novels Liza Bowe, Swear by Apollo, and The Last Gentleman are in the University of New Hampshire Library. [5]
Shirley Barker | |
---|---|
Born | Shirley Frances Barker April 4, 1911 |
Died | November 18, 1965
Penacook, New Hampshire, U.S. | (aged 54)
Nationality | American |
Education | Radcliffe College, Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science |
Occupations |
|
Shirley Frances Barker (April 4, 1911 – November 18, 1965) [1] was an American writer, poet, and librarian.
Barker was born in Farmington, New Hampshire. [2] She attended the University of New Hampshire, graduating with a B.A. in 1934 as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. [1] [3]: 689 While still an undergraduate, she won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition with her poetry collection The Dark Hills Under (1933). It was published with a foreword by Stephen Vincent Benét and was well reviewed. [1]
One of the judges had detected some literary affinities between her work and that of Robert Frost, so UNH President Edward M. Lewis asked Barker to send a copy of the collection to Frost, Lewis' friend and correspondent. [3]: 471 Frost was enraged by what he perceived as anti- Puritan and anti-theistic sentiments in Barker's poetry and bizarrely insisted that Barker was the illegitimate descendant of a person described in her poem "Portrait". [3]: 471–3 In what his biographer described as "a characteristic act of poetic retaliation", Frost penned the ribald poem "Pride of Ancestry" [3]: 473 and the religious poem "Not All There". [3]: 474 He did not tell Lewis of his objections to Barker's work [3]: 474–5 and there is no record that there was any correspondence between Frost and Barker. [3]: 690
Barker did not publish another book for sixteen years. She graduated with an A.M. in English from Radcliffe College in 1938 and a degree in library science from the Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science in 1941. Beginning in 1940, she worked as a librarian at the New York Public Library, primarily in the American history section. [1]
In 1949, she published her debut novel, Peace My Daughters, about the Salem witch trials, which she believed her ancestors had attended. [4] She wrote a series of successful formula historical novels, most of them set in her native New England and some with supernatural elements. [1] Two of her novels, Rivers Parting (1952) and Swear by Apollo (1959), were Literary Guild selections. [2] The success of these novels enabled her to leave the New York Public Library in 1953 and she moved to Concord, New Hampshire. [3]: 689
Barker was found inside a car in her garage in Penacook, New Hampshire, dead of carbon monoxide poisoning. The car windows were up and the gas tank was empty. Her death was ruled a suicide. [4] When Frost biographer Lawrance Thompson attempted to access her papers, he was told by her executor that they all "had disappeared under mysterious circumstances". [3]: 690 However, typescripts, galleys, and plate proofs of the novels Liza Bowe, Swear by Apollo, and The Last Gentleman are in the University of New Hampshire Library. [5]