author
Elizabeth Virginia Raplee
1900–1982
A little-known American poet with a taste for the eerie, she is remembered today for "To a Skull on My Bookshelf," a dark, memorable poem first published in Weird Tales in 1937. Her small surviving body of work has given her a lasting niche among readers who enjoy vintage macabre verse.
1 Audiobook
To a Skull on My Bookshelf
by Elizabeth Virginia Raplee
About the author
Elizabeth Virginia Raplee was an American poet born in Clayton, New York, on November 17, 1900. She died in 1982, and the basic published record on her life appears to be quite sparse.
What is most clearly documented is her writing. Raplee is associated with the poem To a Skull on My Bookshelf, which appeared in Weird Tales in October 1937 and later circulated through public-domain archives, helping new readers discover her work long after its original magazine publication.
Because so little biographical material is easy to confirm, her reputation rests mainly on the poem itself: thoughtful, gothic, and vividly interested in mortality. That air of mystery has become part of her appeal, especially for readers drawn to forgotten voices from early twentieth-century popular magazines.