Moore, Marianne, 1887–1972, American poet, b. St. Louis, grad. Bryn Mawr College, 1909. She lived mostly in New York City, working first as a librarian and later as acting editor of the Dial (1925–29). Her poetry, constructed like a precise mosaic, is witty, intellectual, and often satirical. Volumes of her verse include Poems (1921), Observations (1924), What Are Years? (1941), Collected Poems (1951; Pulitzer Prize), O to Be a Dragon (1959), and Complete Poems (1967). Among her other works are the translation The Fables of La Fontaine (1954) and the essays Predilections (1955).

Bibliography

See her complete poems (1967, repr. 1982); Selected Letters ed. by B. Costello (1997); studies by G. W. Nitchie (1969), B. Costello (1981), M. Holley (1988), and C. Goodridge (1989).

Moore, Marianne (Craig)

Marianne Moore, 1957

(credit: Imogen Cunningham)

(born Nov. 15, 1887, St. Louis, Mo., U.S.—died Feb. 5, 1972, New York City, N.Y.) U.S. poet. She attended Bryn Mawr College and later settled in Brooklyn, N.Y., with her mother. After 1919 she devoted herself to writing, contributing poetry and criticism to many journals. She edited the influential journal The Dial (1925–29). Her poetry volumes include Observations (1924) and Collected Poems (1951, Pulitzer and Bollingen Prizes, National Book Award). In her highly disciplined poems she distilled moral and intellectual insights from close observation of objective detail, especially in the animal world, often in innovative stanzaic forms. In her much-anthologized “Poetry” (1921) she called for poems that present “imaginary gardens with real toads in them.” In her late years the winningly eccentric Moore, in her cape and tricornered hat, became an icon of sprightly gentility.

Moore, Marianne (Craig) (1887–1972) poet; born in Kirkwood, Mo. She studied at Bryn Mawr (B.A. 1909) and Carlisle Commercial College, Pa. (1910), and worked at the U.S. Indian School, Pa. (1911–15). She settled in New York City (1919), living first in Greenwich Village and then in Brooklyn, and worked as a librarian, editor, and lecturer. A modernist poet, she is famous for her mildly eccentric public persona, a devotion to baseball, and her impeccably intelligent poetry, as seen in The Complete Poems (1967).