author
Margaret Widdemer
1884–1978
A Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, novelist, and children's writer, she brought a warm lyric voice to subjects ranging from everyday feeling to the social problems of her time. Her work helped carry traditional poetry into the early 20th century without losing its human touch.
5 Audiobooks
The Rose-Garden Husband
by Margaret Widdemer
The Wishing-Ring Man
by Margaret Widdemer
I've Married Marjorie
by Margaret Widdemer
A Tree with a Bird in it: A Symposium of Contemporary American Poets on Being Shown a Pear-tree on Which Sat a Grackle
by Margaret Widdemer
Winona of the Camp Fire
by Margaret Widdemer
About the author
Born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, on September 30, 1884, Margaret Widdemer grew up in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and studied at the Drexel Institute Library School. She became known as a poet and novelist with a gift for clear, musical language, and her poems often engaged with issues such as child labor while staying rooted in traditional forms.
Widdemer won the 1919 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for The Old Road to Paradise, sharing the award with Carl Sandburg's Cornhuskers. Along with poetry, she wrote novels and books for younger readers, building a wide readership over a long literary career.
She died on July 14, 1978. Today she is remembered both for the grace of her verse and for the way she used familiar poetic forms to speak about ordinary lives and public concerns.