author
George W. (George William) Cronyn
1888–1969
Best known for collecting and editing Native American poetry, this American writer also worked closely with the Federal Writers' Project during the New Deal era. His career ranged from literary scholarship to social and political writing, giving his work an unusually broad reach.
1 Audiobook
The Glebe 1914/09 (Vol. 2, No. 2): Poems
by George W. (George William) Cronyn
About the author
Born in Anderson, Indiana, in 1888, George William Cronyn was an American writer and editor whose work moved between poetry, criticism, and public writing. He is especially remembered for compiling anthologies of Native American verse, including The Path on the Rainbow and later Native American Poetry, books that helped introduce many readers to a wide range of Indigenous songs and chants.
Cronyn was also involved in the Works Progress Administration's Federal Writers' Project, where he served as an assistant to founder Henry Alsberg. Alongside his editorial work, he wrote on varied subjects, including medieval literature and communism, which shows how wide his interests were.
He died in 1969. While he is not as widely known today as some of his contemporaries, his anthologies remain an important part of the early twentieth-century effort to preserve and share Native American poetic traditions in print.