Constance Carrier
{{Short description|American poet (1908–1991)}}
{{Infobox writer
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| birth_name = Constance Virginia Carrier
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1908|7|29}}
| birth_place = New Britain, Connecticut, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1991|12|7|1908|7|29}}
| death_place = New Britain, Connecticut, U.S.
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| occupation = Teacher, poet, translator
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| nationality = American
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| alma_mater = Smith College
Trinity College
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| genre = poetry
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Constance Virginia Carrier (July 29, 1908 – December 7, 1991) was an American teacher, translator, and poet, based in Connecticut.
Early life and education
Carrier was born in New Britain, Connecticut, the daughter of Lucius Alonso Carrier and Lillian M. Jost Carrier.{{Cite news |date=1991-12-10 |title=Constance V. Carrier (death notice) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/hartford-courant-constance-v-carrier-d/175052001/ |access-date=2025-06-22 |work=Hartford Courant |pages=116 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1947-10-27 |title=Carrier Estate Valued at $18,000 Inventory Shows |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/record-journal-carrier-estate-valued-at/175053047/ |access-date=2025-06-22 |work=Record-Journal |pages=10 |via=Newspapers.com}} Her father was on the staff at Trinity College in Hartford.{{Cite news |date=1964-03-17 |title=Classical Assn. to Hear Translator, Teacher |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/hartford-courant-classical-assn-to-hear/175053267/ |access-date=2025-06-22 |work=Hartford Courant |pages=24 |via=Newspapers.com}} She was descended from Martha Carrier, one of the women hanged during the notorious Salem witch trials of 1692. The witch trials were the subject of Carrier's last volume of poetry.{{Cite web |last=Gordon |first=Laura |title=Carrier, Constance Virginia |url=https://dbcs.rutgers.edu/all-scholars/8597-carrier-constance-virginia |access-date=2025-06-22 |website=Database of Classical Scholars {{!}} Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey |language=en-gb}} She graduated from Smith College in 1929.{{Cite news |date=1991-12-10 |title=Constance V. Carrier, Retired teacher and poetry writer |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-constance-v-carrier-r/175052840/ |access-date=2025-06-22 |work=The Boston Globe |pages=30}} As a student at Smith, she was inspired to become a poet by reading Louise Bogan and Emily Dickinson.{{Cite web |title=Yaddo Exhibition: Constance Carrier |url=https://www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/ssc/yaddo/carrier.html |access-date=2025-06-22 |website=Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College}} She earned a master's degree at Trinity College in 1940.{{Cite news |date=1991-12-11 |title=Constance V. Carrier; poet, retired teacher |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/hartford-courant-constance-v-carrier-p/175052191/ |access-date=2025-06-22 |work=Hartford Courant |pages=136 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Career
Carrier taught at New Britain High School, and then five years at Hall High School in West Hartford, before retiring in 1969. She taught several subjects, but is most remembered for teaching Latin. She also taught in summer programs at Wesleyan University and Tufts University, and held residencies at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony.{{Cite web |title=Constance Carrier - Artist |url=https://www.macdowell.org/artists/constance-carrier |access-date=2025-06-22 |website=MacDowell |language=en}}
Carrier's poetry was published in the New Yorker,{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Constance Carrier |url=https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/constance-carrier |access-date=2025-06-22 |website=The New Yorker |language=en-US}} New York Quarterly, Ploughshares,{{Cite web |title=Constance Carrier |url=https://pshares.org/authors/constance-carrier/ |access-date=2025-06-22 |website=Ploughshares |language=en-US}} Poetry, and Harper's. The Middle Voice won the 1954 Lamont Prize, given by the Academy of American Poets.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Carrier published translations of the works three classical Roman writers: the playwright Terence, and the poets Propertius and Tibullus. In 1964 she spoke at the Classical Association of New England (CANE) meeting at Dartmouth College.
Personal life and legacy
Carrier died in 1991, at the age of 83, in New Britain. The anniversary of her 100th birthday was celebrated in New Britain.{{cite news |author=Ken Byron |date=2008-11-21 |title=Constance Carrier, a Local Teacher and Noted Poet, Will be Honored on Saturday |url=http://blogs.courant.com/itowns_nb/2008/11/constance-carrier-a-local-teac.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130119231832/http://blogs.courant.com/itowns_nb/2008/11/constance-carrier-a-local-teac.html |archive-date=2013-01-19 |access-date=May 30, 2009 |work=The Hartford Courant}} Her papers are in the Mortimer Rare Book Collection of Smith College.[https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/3/resources/1352 Constance Carrier Papers], Mortimer Rare Book Collection, Smith College.
Works
=Poetry=
- {{cite book| title=The Middle Voice| year=1954| publisher=A. Swallow| place=Denver| url=https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=2940361 }}
- {{cite book| title=The Angled Road| place=Chicago| publisher=Swallow Press| year=1973| isbn=0-8040-0655-5}}
- {{cite book| title=Witchcraft Poems: Salem, 1692| place=Roslyn, N.Y.| publisher=Stone House Press| year=1988| isbn=0-937035-11-4 }}
=Translations=
- {{cite book |title=The complete comedies of Terence; modern verse translations |last2= |first2= |last3= |first3= |others= |editor=Palmer Bovie |place=New Brunswick, N.J. |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=1974 |isbn=0-8135-0775-8 |last= |first= |url=https://archive.org/details/completecomedies00tere}}
- {{cite book |title=Terence, the comedies |others= |editor=Palmer Bovie |place=Baltimore |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=1992 |isbn=0-8018-4354-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/terencecomedies00tere}}
- {{cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/plautuscomedies0000plau| url-access=registration| title=Plautus | author=Titus Maccius Plautus| editor=David R. Slavitt| editor-link=David R. Slavitt|editor2=Smith Palmer Bovie| chapter=Amphitryon| publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press| year=1995| isbn=978-0-8018-5071-4 }}
- {{cite book| title=The Poems of Tibullus | url=https://archive.org/details/poemsoftibullusw0000tibu | url-access=registration | author=Tibullus| others=Constance Carrier }}
- {{cite book|title=The poems of Propertius | publisher=Bloomington | year=1963| author=Propertius| others=Constance Carrier}}
=Anthologies=
- {{cite book| title=American Poetry: The Twentieth Century: e.e. cummings to May Swenson| volume=II| url=https://archive.org/details/americanpoetry00newy| editor=Robert Hass| editor2=John Hollander| editor3=Carolyn Kizer| editor4=Marjorie Perloff| editor5=Nathaniel Mackey| publisher=Penguin Group| date=April 2000| isbn=978-1-883011-78-9| url-access=registration}}
References
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External links
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOZBBFYouU8 "Elegies 11.28" by Propertius (Translated by Constance Carrier)], a 2025 episode of The Well Read Poem, hosted by Thomas Banks; on YouTube
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Category:20th-century American poets
Category:Writers from Hartford, Connecticut
Category:Latin–English translators
Category:20th-century American women writers