author
Lola Ridge
1873–1941
An Irish-born poet who brought modern city life, radical politics, and deep sympathy for working people into vivid verse. Her writing helped shape early American modernism while staying fiercely independent and socially engaged.
2 Audiobooks
The Ghetto, and Other Poems
by Lola Ridge
Sun-Up, and Other Poems
by Lola Ridge
About the author
Born in Dublin in 1873, she spent parts of her early life in New Zealand and Australia before moving to the United States in 1907. Writing as Lola Ridge, she became known as a modernist poet and an influential editor connected with avant-garde, feminist, and left-leaning literary circles.
Her first major collection, The Ghetto and Other Poems (1918), drew attention for its powerful portrayal of immigrant life on New York’s Lower East Side. She went on to publish several books of poetry and built a reputation for long poems and sequences that joined sharp visual detail with strong social feeling.
Ridge was also active in political causes and is often remembered as an independent radical voice rather than a party writer. She died in Brooklyn in 1941, but her work continues to be valued for its urban energy, compassion, and fearless commitment to the lives of ordinary people.