Ada L. F. Snell
{{short description|American poet}}
{{use mdy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ada L. F. Snell
| image = AdaLFSnell1922.png
| alt = A middle-aged white woman wearing pince-nez glasses and a white blouse or dress with a lace collar
| caption = Ada L. F. Snell, from the 1922 yearbook of Mount Holyoke College
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| birth_date = May 11, 1870
| birth_place = Geneva, New York
| death_date = April 18, 1972
| death_place = South Hadley, Massachusetts
| occupation = Writer, poet
| years_active =
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}}
Ada Laura Fonda Snell (May 11, 1870 – April 18, 1972) was an American poet and college professor. She taught English at Mount Holyoke College from 1892 until 1938.
Early life and education
Ada Laura Fonda Snell was born in Geneva, New York, the daughter of Marvin Snell and Sarah Eleanor Fonda Snell.{{Cite news|date=1924-05-19|title=Sarah E. Snell|pages=24|work=Democrat and Chronicle|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84498806/obituary-for-sarah-f-snell-aged-84/|access-date=2021-08-31|via=Newspapers.com}} Her family ran a dairy farm. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1892.{{Cite news|date=1942-06-01|title=Ada Snell Gets Alumnae Medal|pages=13|work=Democrat and Chronicle|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84500457/ada-snell-gets-alumnae-medal/|access-date=2021-08-31|via=Newspapers.com}} She earned a master's degree from Yale University. She completed doctoral studies in English at the University of Michigan,{{Cite news|date=1972-04-19|title=Ada L. F. Snell, 101, English Professor|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/19/archives/ada-l-r-snv-ol-i-ncsh-profrssori.html|access-date=2021-08-31|issn=0362-4331}} with a dissertation titled Pause and the Formation of Rhythmical Units: A Study based on a Consideration of Milton's Blank Verse (1916),{{Cite book|last=Snell|first=Ada Laura Fonda|url=http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015070403293|title=Pause and the formation of rhythmical units :study based on a consideration of Milton's blank verse.|date=1916|hdl=2027/mdp.39015070403293}} under the advice of Fred Newton Scott.{{Cite book|last1=Stewart|first1=Donald C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rLADll8szj4C&dq=Ada+L.+F.+Snell&pg=PA153|title=The Life and Legacy of Fred Newton Scott|last2=Stewart|first2=Patricia L.|date=1997-11-15|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Pre|isbn=978-0-8229-7723-0|pages=153|language=en}}
Career
Snell began teaching at Mount Holyoke College in 1892. "Young students, I have discovered in my teaching of English, are very loath to believe that any great writer ever contemplated problems of form," she wrote in 1913; "they like to think that the commas, capitals, spelling and content are all the happy result of genius."{{Cite journal|last=Snell|first=Ada L. F.|date=1913|title=Chaucer's Comments on His Method of Composition|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/800945|journal=The English Journal|volume=2|issue=4|pages=231–234|doi=10.2307/800945|jstor=800945|issn=0013-8274|url-access=subscription}} She retired as English department head{{Cite news|date=1948-07-18|title=Palatines' Mohawk Valley Churches Remind of their Sturdy Faith|pages=12|work=Democrat and Chronicle|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84500996/palatines-mohawk-valley-churches/|access-date=2021-08-31|via=Newspapers.com}} in 1938,{{Cite journal|date=May 7, 1960|title=News by Classes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GPHhAAAAMAAJ&dq=Ada+L.+F.+Snell&pg=PA312|journal=The Michigan Alumnus|volume=66|pages=312}}{{Cite news|date=1938-03-12|title=Faculty Changes at Mt. Holyoke|pages=20|work=The Boston Globe|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84500762/faculty-changes-at-mt-holyoke/|access-date=2021-08-31|via=Newspapers.com}} but remained involved in the campus community.{{Cite news|date=1940-01-13|title=Mary Lyon Picture Found at College|pages=18|work=The Berkshire Eagle|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84500842/mary-lyon-picture-found-at-college/|access-date=2021-08-31|via=Newspapers.com}}
Snell's academic work involved studies of poetic meters,{{Cite journal|last=Snell|first=Ada L. F.|date=1918|title=An Objective Study of Syllabic Quantity in English Verse|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/pmla/article/abs/an-objective-study-of-syllabic-quantity-in-english-verse/FAFA44B82601BA4AAB1F305E6DFD0E3B|journal=PMLA|language=en|volume=33|issue=3|pages=396–408|doi=10.2307/456931|jstor=456931|s2cid=251023911 |issn=0030-8129|url-access=subscription}} using recordings and other new technologies.{{Cite book|last=Holder|first=Alan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JUI-rIItlLsC&dq=Ada+L.+F.+Snell&pg=PA265|title=Rethinking Meter: A New Approach to the Verse Line|date=1995|publisher=Bucknell University Press|isbn=978-0-8387-5292-0|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Chatman|first=Seymour|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tZlsDwAAQBAJ&dq=Ada+L.+F.+Snell&pg=PA41|title=A theory of meter|date=2016-07-11|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG|isbn=978-3-11-135226-8|pages=41|language=en}} She was the author of Pause: A Study of its Nature and its Rhythmical Function in Verse, Especially Blank Verse (1918),{{Cite book|last=Snell|first=Ada L. F.|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000386896|title=Pause: a study of its nature and its rhythmical function in verse, especially blank verse|date=1918|publisher=[The Ann Arbor press]|series=Contributions to rhetorical theory, VIII|location=Ann Arbor}} Mount Holyoke College Verse (1928),{{Cite book|last1=Snell|first1=Ada L. F|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1083504|title=Mount Holyoke College verse|last2=Mount Holyoke College|date=1928|publisher=University Press|location=Oxford|language=English|oclc=1083504}} Palatines along the Mohawk and their church in the wilderness (1948),{{Cite book|last=Snell|first=Ada L. F|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/4322227|title=Palatines along the Mohawk and their church in the wilderness.|date=1948|location=South Hadley, Mass.|language=English|oclc=4322227}} Joyful Songs: Carols of the Nativity (1958),{{Cite book|last=Snell|first=Ada L. F|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/4050224|title=Joyful songs: carols of the Nativity|date=1958|publisher=Bookman Associates|location=New York|language=English|oclc=4050224}} The First Noel: Animal Songs of the Nativity (1958),{{Cite book|last=Snell|first=Ada L. F|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1563950|title=The first Noel: animal songs of the Nativity.|date=1956|publisher=Bookman Associates|location=New York|language=English|oclc=1563950}} and Where Birds Sing (1959, with Freda Reiter).{{Cite book|last1=Snell|first1=Ada L. F|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1358287|title=Where birds sing|last2=Reiter|first2=Freda|date=1959|publisher=Bookman Associates|location=New York|language=English|oclc=1358287}} She also edited Thomas Henry Huxley's Autobiography and Selected Essays (1909),{{Cite book|last1=Huxley|first1=Thomas Henry|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1315/1315-h/1315-h.htm|title=Autobiography and selected essays|last2=Snell|first2=Ada L. F.|date=1909|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|location=Boston; New York|language=English|oclc=1172567}} the Riverside Essays series (1913, 1914),{{Cite journal|date=April 2, 1914|title=Book Table|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ISJDAQAAMAAJ&dq=Ada+L.+F.+Snell&pg=PA385|journal=Journal of Education|volume=79|issue=14|pages=385|doi=10.1177/002205741407901418|s2cid=220814909|url-access=subscription}} and a collection of Katherine Irene Glascock's poetry.{{Cite news|date=1924-06-11|title=Clipped From The Brooklyn Daily Eagle|pages=29|work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84501526/the-brooklyn-daily-eagle/|access-date=2021-08-31|via=Newspapers.com}}
Snell was a member of the Modern Language Association and the National Council of Teachers of English.Mount Holyoke College, [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Llamarada%2C_1918.pdf Llamarada] (1918 yearbook): 36. In 1942 she was honored by the Mount Holyoke Alumnae Association with a medal, and the citation "One of the great teachers of Mount Holyoke tradition. She explored the difficult field of metrical structure with the spirit of a scientist."
Personal life
References
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Category:American women centenarians
Category:Mount Holyoke College faculty
Category:Mount Holyoke College alumni
Category:University of Michigan alumni
Category:Yale University alumni
Category:20th-century American poets
Category:People from Geneva, New York
Category:Poets from New York (state)
Category:20th-century American women writers