Elinor Wylie

Born in Somerville, New Jersey, in 1885, Elinor Wylie became one of the best-known American poets of the 1920s. She also wrote novels, and her first major poetry collection, Nets to Catch the Wind (1921), helped establish her literary reputation.

Wylie grew up in a prominent family and was expected to move easily through polite society, but her life took a far less conventional path. Accounts from major reference sources describe her as both a literary celebrity and a striking public figure, known in her own time for the combination of her carefully crafted writing and her magnetic presence.

Her poetry is often praised for its formal grace, rich imagery, and emotional restraint, while her fiction carries the same sharp, stylish intelligence. She died in New York City in 1928, but her work remains an inviting entry point into American poetry between the world wars.