E. L. Mayo

{{Short description|American writer (1904–1979)}}

{{Distinguish|El Mayo}}

{{infobox writer

|name=E. L. Mayo

|birth_name=Edward Leslie Mayo

|birth_date={{birth date|1904|7|26}}

|birth_place=Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

|death_date={{death date and age|1979|12|4|1904|7|26}}

|death_place=Grinnell, Iowa, U.S.

|occupation={{flatlist|

  • Poet
  • professor
  • author

}}

|education=University of Minnesota (BA, MA)

|spouse={{marriage|Myra Margaret Buchanan Morton|1936}}

|children=3

}}

Edward Leslie Mayo (July 26, 1904 in Dorchester, Massachusetts – December 4, 1979 in Grinnell, Iowa) was an American poet, English professor, and author.

Life

Mayo attended schools in Malden, Massachusetts, and then studied at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. He worked as a brush salesman, a music store clerk, a waiter at the Mount Washington Hotel, and a wine steward in the Bahamas.

In 1929 Mayo returned to study at the University of Minnesota. He graduated with a B.A. magna cum laude in 1932, and a M.A. in 1936.

Career

Over the course of his career, Mayo taught English at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and at both the University of Minnesota and Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1953, he was awarded the first Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship which, along with a Drake donor matching gift, allowed him to spend 1953 through 1954 teaching and working in England and traveling in Europe.Des Moines Register news clipping; date missing Mayo was also a professor of English at Iowa Wesleyan College, and in 1961 received an honorary degree. Mayo taught Roger Weaver (poet) at the University of Oregon.[https://archive.today/20240524095132/https://www.webcitation.org/5hGqtGNR2?url=http://www.geocities.com/poetryenterprises/aboutthefounderofpoetryenterprises.html WebCite query result] The American poet and essayist Ben Howard was also Mayo's student at Drake University from 1962 to 1964 and from 1965 to 1966.

Mayo's work appeared in Poetry {{cite web|url=http://preview.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=19946|title=October 1967 - Poetry Foundation|publisher=|accessdate=20 September 2016}} and Poetry Magazine.{{cite web|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/toc.html?issue=339|title=December 1940 - Poetry Magazine|publisher=|accessdate=20 September 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/toc.html?issue=437|title=February 1949 - Poetry Magazine|publisher=|accessdate=20 September 2016}}

Personal life

He met his wife, Myra Margaret Buchanan Morton, after she won a prize in a poetry competition and he received honorable mention.Minneapolis Press title: Spring Lit Review Issue Out Today; Three Get Prizes They married on September 10, 1936, at the House of Hope Presbyterian Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota.Aberdeen Press and Journal Tuesday, September 24, 1936, second edition Births, Marriages, Deaths

Mayo died in 1979 from congestive heart failure. He was survived by his wife, Myra, and children Mary Elizabeth, Alice Myra Breemer, John Harvey, and their grandchildren.{{cite web|url=http://www.ohioswallow.com/author/E%20L%20Mayo|title=E. L. Mayo · Ohio University Press / Swallow Press|publisher=|accessdate=20 September 2016}}"E L Mayo." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2001. Literature Resources from Gale

Awards

  • Payne Prize (1932)
  • The Oscar Blumenthal Prize (Poetry, Chicago, 1942)
  • Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship (1953–54)
  • 1982 American Book Award{{cite web|url=http://book.consumerhelpweb.com/awards/ambook/1980.htm|title=AMERICAN BOOK AWARDS 1980-1989 - BOOK HELP WEB|accessdate=20 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090109161141/http://book.consumerhelpweb.com/awards/ambook/1980.htm|archive-date=9 January 2009|url-status=dead}}

Works

=Poetry Books=

  • {{cite book| title=Summer Unbound, and Other Poems| url=https://archive.org/details/summerunboundoth00mayo| url-access=registration| publisher=University of Minnesota Press| year=1958| isbn=978-0-8166-6362-0 }}
  • {{cite book| year=1982| title=Collected Poems| place=Kansas City| publisher=Ohio University Press| isbn=978-0-8040-0386-5 }}
  • {{cite book| title=The Diver: Poems | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hs1mcf84R7IC&dq=%22e+l+mayo%22+diver&pg=PP1| publisher=University of Minnesota Press| year=1999| isbn=978-0-8166-0045-8 }}

=Criticism=

  • {{cite book| title=The Journal of the National Book League| issue=291| date=Jan–Feb 1955| chapter=Formative American Elements in the Work of T.S. Eliot }}
  • {{cite journal| title=A Kind of Liberation | journal=Northwest Review | editor=Jean C. Stine, Daniel G. Marowski| volume=10| issue=3 | place=Detroit|date=Summer 1970| pages=115–118 }}

References

{{reflist}}