May Riley Smith
{{short description|American poet and clubwoman (1842–1927)}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = May Riley Smith
| image = MARY LOUISE RILEY SMITH A woman of the century (page 678 crop).jpg
| caption = Mary Louise Riley Smith, "A woman of the century"
| birth_name = May Riley
| birth_date = May 27, 1842
| birth_place = Rochester, New York
| death_date = January 14, 1927
| death_place = Manhattan, New York
| occupation = Clubwoman{{br}}Poet
}}
May Riley Smith (May 27, 1842 – January 14, 1927) was an American poet and clubwoman.
Biography
May (or Mary) Louise Riley was born on May 27, 1842, in Rochester, New York.{{efn|According to Willard (1893), Riley was born in Brighton, Monroe county, New York, May 27, 1852.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=669}}}} She attended Brockport Collegiate Institute. She married Albert Smith, of Springfield, Illinois, a bridge engineer, on March 31, 1869,{{cite book|author=John William Leonard|title=Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQnhIJhYbbMC&pg=PA763|year=1914|publisher=American Commonwealth Company|pages=763–}} and they had one son.{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=669}}
Soon, they removed to New York City,{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=669}} where Smith belonged to several literary and social clubs during her life. She was the president of the Sorosis Club from 1911 to 1915 and the club's honorary president from 1919 until her death in 1927. She was also a member of the Poetry Club, Daughters of the American Revolution, the Meridian Club, the Barnard Club, and the MacDowell Club.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1927/01/15/archives/mrs-may-riley-smith-poet-honorary-president-of-sorosism-club-dies.html|title=MRS. MAY RILEY SMITH.; Poet, Honorary President of Sorosism Club, Dies In Her 85th Year.|date=1927-01-15|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-05-01|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}
Her published books are A Gift of Gentians and Other Verses (New York, 1882), and The Inn of Rest (1888). Among the best and most popular of her poems are "Tired Mothers," "If We Knew," "The Easter Moon," " Love is Sweeter than Rest" and "My Prayer." Among those that have been published separately as booklets are "His Name" and "Sometime".{{sfn|Willard|Livermore|1893|p=669}} Many of her poems were devotional and were reprinted in hymn books.{{Cite news|title=Author of Sunday School Poetry: May Riley Smith|date=March 1, 1885|work=The Topeka Daily Capital}} Her poems were also published in magazines such as Harper's Magazine.{{Cite magazine|url=https://harpers.org/archive/1890/01/trust/|title=Trust|last=Smith|first=May Riley|date=January 1890|magazine=Harper's Magazine|access-date=2019-05-01|issn=0017-789X}}
Smith died in Manhattan on January 14, 1927.
Notes
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References
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= Attribution =
- {{Source-attribution| {{cite book|last1=Willard|first1=Frances Elizabeth|author1-link=Frances Willard|last2=Livermore|first2=Mary Ashton Rice|author2-link=Mary Livermore|title=A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life|chapter=Mary Louise Riley Smith |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Woman_of_the_Century/Mary_Louise_Riley_Smith|edition=Public domain|year=1893|publisher=Charles Wells Moulton}} }}
External links
{{Wikisource-inline|Woman of the Century/Woman of the Century/Mary Louise Riley Smith}}
- {{Internet Archive author |sname=Smith, May Riley}}
- [http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Smith%2C%20May%20Riley%2C%201842%3F-1927 May Riley Smith] at the Online Books Page
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Category:Writers from Rochester, New York
Category:19th-century American poets
Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century