Lillian Mayfield Wright
{{short description|American poet}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Lillian Mayfield Wright
| image = LillianMayfieldRobertsWright1915.png
| alt = A young white woman with curly dark hair, wearing a dress with a round lace-trimmed collar
| caption = Lillian Mayfield, from the 1915 yearbook of West Virginia Wesleyan College
| other_names = Lillian Mayfield Roberts
| birth_name =
| birth_date = October 24, 1894
| birth_place = Conaway, West Virginia
| death_date = February 26, 1986 (aged 91)
| death_place = Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| occupation = Poet
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}
Lillian Perry Mayfield Roberts Wright (October 24, 1894 – February 26, 1986) was an American poet.
Early life and education
Lillian Perry Mayfield was born in Conaway, West Virginia,{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=Maria C. |date=July 24, 1995 |title=Author Unknown; Charmed by a Poet's Words, a Liberty Woman Undertook a Search for the Author |url=https://greensboro.com/author-unknown/article_4c213932-ae95-5a74-9cfe-230da9a1df20.html |access-date=2022-05-23 |website=Greensboro News and Record |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Brenni |first=Vito Joseph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CqgUAQAAIAAJ&q=Lillian+Mayfield+Roberts |title=West Virginia Authors |date=1957 |publisher=West Virginia Library Association |pages=56 |language=en}} the daughter of Joshua Grant Mayfield and Florence May Carter Mayfield. She attended West Virginia Wesleyan CollegeWest Virginia Wesleyan College, [https://archive.org/details/murmurmontisyear10west/page/44/mode/2up?q=Mayfield Murmurmontis] (1915 yearbook): 47. via Internet Archive and New York University, and studied with poet Joyce Kilmer.
Publications
Many of her poems and stories were published in national magazines under the name Lillian Mayfield Roberts.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=62FRWV5koM4C&dq=Lillian+Mayfield+Roberts&pg=PA38 |title=Upshur County |date=2001 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-1352-2 |pages=38 |language=en}} "The best of these mountain poets is Lillian Mayfield Roberts," commented H. L. Mencken in The American Mercury in 1926.{{Cite journal |date=June 1926 |title=The Library |journal=The American Mercury |volume=8 |pages=254 |via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite journal |date=July 27, 1926 |title=Mercury Falls on Miss Turner |url=https://archive.org/details/picket1926-1927shepu/page/n45/mode/2up?q=%22Lillian+Mayfield+Roberts%22 |journal=The Shepherd College Picket |volume=31 |pages=2 |via=Internet Archive}} One of her poems, "Hill Hunger", was included in the anthology Modern American Lyrics (1924).{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N1IXAAAAIAAJ&dq=Lillian+Mayfield+Roberts&pg=PA32 |title=Modern American Lyrics: An Anthology |date=1924 |publisher=Minton, Balch |isbn=978-0-8274-2745-7 |pages=32 |language=en}} Her short story "The Fly on the Window" won $1000 from the West Virginia Review.{{Cite book |last=Wood |first=Warren |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oRRIAAAAIAAJ&dq=Lillian+Mayfield+Roberts&pg=PA317 |title=Representative Authors of West Virginia |date=1926 |publisher=Worth-while book Company |pages=317 |language=en}}
- "The Prayer" (1918){{Cite news |last=Roberts |first=Lillian Mayfield |date=1918-04-19 |title=The Prayer |pages=5 |work=The Enid Daily Eagle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/102403683/the-prayerlillian-mayfield-roberts/ |access-date=2022-05-23 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- "Clarksburg Season Opens" (1919){{Cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Lillian Mayfield |date=November 15, 1919 |title=Clarksburg Season Opens |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gNtFAQAAMAAJ&dq=Lillian+Mayfield+Roberts&pg=RA2-PA105 |journal=Musical America |volume=31 |pages=105}}
- "The Professor's Wife" (1921){{Cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Lillian Mayfield |date=November 1921 |title=The Professor's Wife |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yTzRsMGKrDcC&dq=Lillian+Mayfield+Roberts&pg=PA548 |journal=Scribner's Magazine |language=en |volume=70 |issue=1 |pages=548 |doi= |issn=}}
- "Skies are so High" (1921){{Cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Lillian Mayfleld |date=August 1921 |title=Skies are so High |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_rosie_1921-08_48_11/page/18/mode/2up?q=%22Lillian+Mayfield%22 |journal=McCall's |volume=48 |pages=18 |via=Internet Archive}}
- "Tomorrow" (1921){{Cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Lillian Wright |date=December 1921 |title=Tomorrow |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V0V1KBzCCHgC&dq=Lillian+Mayfield+Roberts&pg=RA5-PA76 |journal=Sunset |volume=47 |pages=76}}
- "Requiem for Dead Hopes" (1921){{Cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Lillian Mayfield |date=March 1921 |title=Requiem for Dead Hopes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J_gvAQAAMAAJ&dq=Lillian+Mayfield+Roberts&pg=PA81 |journal=The Medical Pickwick |volume=7 |pages=105}}
- "Retrospect" (1922){{Cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Lillian Mayfield |date=September 1922 |title=Retrospect |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ibQ7AQAAMAAJ&dq=Lillian+Mayfield+Roberts&pg=PA272 |journal=House Beautiful |volume=52 |pages=272}}
- "If (for the Wife)" (1922){{Cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Lillian Mayfield |date=September 1922 |title=If (for the Wife) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5LAaAQAAMAAJ&dq=Lillian+Mayfield+Roberts&pg=PA106 |journal=The Ladies' Home Journal |via=106}}
- "In the Market" (1923){{Cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Lillian Mayfield |date=August 1923 |title=In the Market |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_sunset-central-west-edition_1923-08_51_2/page/32/mode/2up?q=%22Lillian+Mayfield%22 |journal=Sunset Magazine |volume=51 |pages=32 |via=Internet Archive}}
- "Home" (1925){{Cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Lillian Mayfield |date=December 1925 |title=Home |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_house-beautiful_1925-12_58_6/page/680/mode/2up?q=%22Lillian+Mayfield%22 |journal=House Beautiful |volume=58 |pages=680 |via=Internet Archive}}
- "Zinnias" (1927){{Cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Lillian Mayfield |date=February 1927 |title=Zinnias |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_scribners-magazine_1927-02_81_2/page/192/mode/2up?q=%22Lillian+Mayfield%22 |journal=Scribner's Magazine |volume=81 |pages=193–195 |via=Internet Archive}}
- "Mountain Medicine" (1964){{Cite journal |last=Wright |first=Lillian Mayfield |date=July 1964 |title=Mountain Medicine |url=https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/ncpi/view/16480 |journal=North Carolina Folklore Journal |volume=12 |pages=7–12}}
Personal life and legacy
Lillian Mayfield married twice. Her first husband was George Paul Roberts; they married in 1916, and divorced in 1928.{{Cite news |date=1928-08-02 |title=Suits Filed |pages=8 |work=Reno Gazette-Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/102403779/suits-filed/ |access-date=2022-05-23 |via=Newspapers.com}} Her second husband, John J. Wright, was a public health professor at the University of North Carolina; they married in 1930. She died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1986, aged 91 years.{{Cite news |date=1986-02-27 |title=Mrs. Lillian Wright |pages=24 |work=The Herald-Sun |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/102404042/mrs-lillian-wright/ |access-date=2022-05-23 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1986-02-27 |title=Lillian P. M. Wright |pages=42 |work=The News and Observer |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/102393526/lillian-p-m-wright/ |access-date=2022-05-23 |via=Newspapers.com}} West Virginia University holds a [https://archives.lib.wvu.edu/repositories/2/resources/1514 collection of Wright's notebooks], including the manuscript of an unpublished novel at the West Virginia & Regional History Center.{{Cite web |title=Collection: Lillian Mayfield Wright, Poet, Notebooks |url=https://archives.lib.wvu.edu/repositories/2/resources/1514 |access-date=2022-05-23 |website=West Virginia University Archivesspace}}
References
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Category:People from Tyler County, West Virginia
Category:20th-century American women writers