author

Marjorie Allen Seiffert

1885–1970

An American poet with a gift for wit and reinvention, she moved easily between lyrical, serious work and playful literary masquerade. Her career included a major poetry prize, memorable magazine publications, and several pseudonyms that still make her story stand out.

1 Audiobook

A Woman of Thirty

A Woman of Thirty

by Marjorie Allen Seiffert

About the author

Marjorie Allen Seiffert was an American poet born in Moline, Illinois, on February 15, 1885, and she died there in 1970. She won the Levinson Prize for Poetry in 1919, an early sign that her work was being noticed in important literary circles.

She published under her own name as well as under pseudonyms, including Angela Cypher and Elijah Hay. That second name links her to the playful Spectrist literary hoax, which has helped keep her name alive in discussions of modernist poetry and literary culture.

Seiffert's books include A Woman of Thirty, Ballads of the Singing Bowl, The King with Three Faces, and The Name of Life. She also published poems in magazines including The New Yorker, and her work is remembered for its range: sometimes elegant and lyrical, sometimes light, sharp, and unexpectedly funny.