Born: September 24, 1825Died: February 22, 1911 Ohio connection: Resident Cincinnati Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was born September 24, 1825, in Baltimore, Maryland to free parents but was orphaned by age three. She was raised by an aunt and uncle and studied Bible, literature, and public speaking at Academy for Negro Youth, a school founded …
Read More Frances Ellen Watkins HarperBorn: September 10, 1840 Died: December 13, 1937 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Leonard Gurley Foster, a Civil War veteran whose avocation brought him the epithet, “the Buckeye poet” was the son of Ebenezer and Elmyra (Williams) Foster. He was born on the family homestead in the Cuyahoga Valley near Denison Avenue in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland. He …
Read More Foster, Leonard GurleyBorn: June 27, 1872Died: February 9, 1906 Ohio connection: Birth Dayton Writer, poet, and lyricist, Paul Laurence Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio, on June 27, 1872. Dunbar, the son of Matilda Murphy Dunbar and Joshua Dunbar (who served in the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment), two formerly enslaved people, wrote his first poem at the age of six. …
Read More Paul Laurence DunbarBorn: July 21, 1899Died: April 27, 1932 Ohio connection: Birth Garrettsville Harold Hart Crane, regarded as one of the greatest American poets of the 20th century, was born in Garrettsville, Ohio, on July 21, 1899. His father, a successful candy and syrup manufacturer, later moved the family to Warren before sending his son to live with his maternal …
Read More Hart CraneBorn: September 4, 1824Died: July 31, 1871 Ohio connection: Birth Mount Healthy Phoebe Cary was born in 1824 in Mount Healthy, Ohio, one of eleven children of Robert and Elizabeth Jessup Cary. She grew up on a farm and had little formal education. Under the tutelage of her older sister Alice, she developed a great love for literature …
Read More Phoebe CaryBorn: April 26, 1820Died: February 12, 1871 Ohio connection: Birth Mount Healthy Alice Cary was born in 1820 in Mount Healthy, Ohio, on a homestead near Cincinnati. The daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Jessup Cary, she was the fourth of eleven children and a sister of author/poet Phoebe Cary. Alice, who was educated at home, developed a …
Read More Alice CaryBorn: November 21, 1925Died: December 4, 2010 Ohio connection: Former Resident Columbus Robert Wilburn Canzoneri was born in San Marcos, Texas, the son of Joe and Mabel (Barnett) Canzoneri. He received a B.A. degree from Mississippi College in 1948, an M.A. from the University of Mississippi in 1951, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1965. He married Candyce Barnes. …
Read More Robert Wilburn CanzoneriBorn: 1954 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland The eldest daughter of four siblings, Mary Elise Weems was born in Cleveland where her mother, Elaine B. Lacy, a lifelong resident of the city, raised her. Weems started writing poetry at the age of thirteen and found her vocation. Her creative spirit-eye has turned more and more outward to …
Read More Mary E. WeemsBorn: June 5, 1926Died: December 18, 2021 Ohio connection: Birth Massillon David Russell Wagoner was born in Massillon, Ohio, in 1926, the son of Walter Siffert and Ruth Banyard Wagoner. In 1933, the family relocated to Whiting, a city outside Gary, Indiana. A voracious reader, Wagoner began writing poetry while in grade school. After graduating from …
Read More David WagonerBorn: November 27, 1874 Died: December 25, 1950 Ohio connection: Birth Xenia Frederic Ridgely Torrence, son of Findley David and Mary (Ridgely) Torrence, was born in 1874 in Xenia, Ohio. He attended Miami University of Ohio, 1893-95, and Princeton University, 1895-96. He worked as a librarian at the Astor Library and the Lenox Library, both …
Read More Frederic Ridgely Torrence