author
Marjorie Allen Seiffert
1885–1970
A prize-winning American poet from Illinois, she moved easily between lyric poetry, light verse, and literary mischief. She is also remembered for writing under more than one name, including a role in the famous Spectrist hoax.
1 Audiobook
A Woman of Thirty
by Marjorie Allen Seiffert
About the author
Born in Moline, Illinois, in 1885, she studied at Smith College and went on to build a long literary career as a poet and playwright. Her work appeared widely, and she won the Levinson Prize for Poetry in 1919.
She published under several names, including Angela Cypher for lighter verse and Elijah Hay for poems connected to the Spectrist hoax, a playful satire of modern poetry created with other writers. That mix of seriousness and wit helped make her work distinctive.
Her books included Ballads of the Singing Bowl, A Woman of Thirty, and The Name of Life. She died in 1970, and her writing remains of interest both for its poetry and for its place in early 20th-century American literary culture.