Janet Lewis

Lewis was born in Chicago, Illinois, and was a graduate of the University of Chicago, where she was a member of a literary circle that included Glenway Wescott, Elizabeth Madox Roberts, and her future husband Yvor Winters. She was an active member of the University of Chicago Poetry Club. She taught at both Stanford University in California, and the University of California at Berkeley.{{cite web|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=4071|title=Janet Loxley Lewis|work=poetryfoundation.org|accessdate=14 September 2015}}

She wrote The Wife of Martin Guerre (1941) which is the tale of one man's deception and another's cowardice. Her first novel was The Invasion: A Narrative of Events Concerning the Johnston Family of St. Mary's (1932). Other prose works include The Trial of Soren Qvist (1947), The Ghost of Monsieur Scarron (1959), and the volume of short fiction, Good-bye, Son, and Other Stories (1946).Stanford University Libraries & Academic Information Resources—American Literary Studies: Janet Lewis Papers [http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/ablit/amerlit/lewis.html]

Lewis was also a poet, and concentrated on imagery, rhythms, and lyricism to achieve her goal. Among her works are The Indians in the Woods (1922), and the later collections Poems, 1924–1944 (1950), and Poems Old and New, 1918–1978 (1981). She also collaborated with Alva Henderson, a composer for whom she wrote three libretti and several song texts.Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library—Kathleen Foster Campbell Papers [http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.campbellkf]

She married the American poet and critic Yvor Winters in 1926. Together they founded Gyroscope, a literary magazine that lasted from 1929 until 1931.

Lewis was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992.{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter W|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterW.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|accessdate=July 29, 2014}} She died at her home in Los Altos, California, in 1998, at the age of 99.

• The Invasion: A Narrative of Events Concerning the Johnston Family of St. Mary's (1932)
• The Wife of Martin Guerre (1941)
• Good-bye, Son, and Other Stories (1946)
• The Trial of Soren Qvist (1947)
• The Ghost of Monsieur Scarron (1959)
• Against a Darkening Sky (1985)

• The Indians in the Woods. Published by Monroe Wheeler, as Manikin Number One, Bonn, Germany, n.d. [1922].
• The Wheel in Midsummer Lynn, Mass, The Lone Gull, 1927.
• The Earth-Bound Aurora, New York, Wells College Press, 1946
• Poems 1924 – 1944 Denver, Alan Swallow, 1950
• The Ancient Ones Portola Valley, California: No Dead Lines, 1979
• The Indians in the Woods 2nd edition with new preface, Palo-Alto California, Matrix Press, 1980.
• Poems Old and New 1918 – 1978 Chicago/Athens, Ohio: Swallow Press / Ohio University Press 1981
• Late Offerings Florence, Ky, Robert L. Barth, 1988
• Janet and Deloss: Poems and Pictures San Diego, Brighton Press 1990
• The Dear Past and other poems 1919 – 1994 Edgewood Ky, Robert L. Barth, 1994
• The Selected Poems of Janet Lewis Athens, Ohio, Swallow Press / Ohio University Press, 2000, {{ISBN|978-0-8040-1023-8}}.

• The Wife of Martin Guerre, opera in three acts after her novel, music by William Bergsma (1956){{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y8bQAwAAQBAJ|title=Operas in English: A Dictionary|first=Margaret Ross|last=Griffel|date=December 21, 2012|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810883253|via=Google Books}}
• The Last of the Mohicans, opera in two acts after the novel by James Fenimore Cooper, music by Alva Henderson (1976)
• The Birthday of the Infanta, opera after the story by Oscar Wilde, music by Malcolm Seagrave (1979){{Cite web |title=The birthday of the infanta : an opera in one act based upon a tale by Oscar Wilde / music by Malcolm Seagrave; libretto by Janet Lewis with Malcolm Seagrave. |url=https://search.lib.uiowa.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay/01IOWA_ALMA21335471230002771/01IOWA |access-date=24 November 2024 |website=search.lib.uiowa.edu}}
• The Swans, opera in three acts after the Brothers Grimm, music by Alva Henderson (1986)
• The Legend, opera after her novel The Invasion, music by Bain Murray
• Mulberry Street, opera after "The Room Across the Hall" by O. Henry, music by Alva Henderson (1988);{{cite web|url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c89w0mtg/entire_text/|title=Furbush (Margaret) collection of Janet Lewis material|website=oac.cdlib.org}} later incorporated as Act II of West of Washington Square

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• {{Librivox author |id=17746}}
• [http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.campbellkf Kathleen Foster Campbell Papers] at Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
• [https://historicalsociety.stanford.edu/publications/lewis-janet Janet Lewis Oral History], conducted by Margo Davis (1977)
• [http://www.graceguts.com/interviews/enduring-imagist-an-interview-with-janet-lewis Enduring Imagist: An Interview with Janet Lewis (1899–1998)], conducted by Catherine J. Kordich and Michael Dylan Welch (1997, 1998)

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Category:1899 births

Category:1998 deaths

Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:20th-century American poets

Category:American women poets

Category:American women short story writers

Category:American women novelists

Category:People from Los Altos, California

Category:Stanford University Department of English faculty

Category:University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty

Category:University of Chicago alumni

Category:Novelists from Chicago

Category:Poets from Chicago

Category:Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area

Category:American opera librettists

Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Category:20th-century American women writers

Category:Women librettists

Category:20th-century American short story writers

Category:Novelists from California

Category:Women opera librettists