Sara Haardt

{{Infobox writer

| name = Sara Haardt

| image = Sara Haardt.jpg

| birth_name = Sara Powell Haardt

| birth_date = {{birth date|1898|3|1}}

| birth_place = Montgomery, Alabama, US

| death_date = {{death date and age|1935|5|31|1898|3|1}}

| death_place = Baltimore, Maryland, US

| occupation = {{flatlist|

Novelist
professor
writer

}}

| spouse = H. L. Mencken (m. 1930)

| alma_mater = Goucher College

}}

Sara Powell Haardt (March 1, 1898 – May 31, 1935) was an American author and professor of English literature. Though she died at the age of 37 of meningitis, she produced a considerable body of work including newspaper reviews, articles, essays, a novel The Making of a Lady, several screenplays and over 50 short stories.{{cite web |title=Sara Haardt |url=https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/sara-haardt/ |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |publisher=Alabama Humanities Alliance |access-date=2 December 2023}} She is central to John Barton Wolgamot's notorious book-length poem, In Sara Mencken, Christ and Beethoven there were men and women (1944), recorded by the composer Robert Ashley.{{cite web|last=Waldrop|first=Keith|url=http://www.ubu.com/historical/wolgamot/wolgamot.pdf|title=JOHN BARTON WOLGAMOT |accessdate=11 March 2018}}

Early life and education

Sara Powell Haardt was born March 1, 1898, to Venetia (Hall) Haardt and German American John Anton Haardt in Montgomery, Alabama, the eldest of five children. She attended the Margaret Booth School. In 1920, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. While still an undergraduate at Goucher, she had become a professional writer, writing for literary reviews and popular periodicals.

Career

She was immediately hired to teach at Goucher College in the English Department upon graduation.{{cite encyclopedia|last=Henley|first=Ann|title=Sara Haardt|url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-2457|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Alabama|publisher=The Encyclopedia of Alabama TM|accessdate=April 11, 2012}}

She became the head of the Alabama branch of the National Woman's Party, where she led the unsuccessful fight to have the Alabama Legislature ratify the 19th Amendment.{{cite web|title=Alabamina: Literary Figures|url=http://www.al.com/south/literary3.html|accessdate=April 11, 2012}}Alabama rejected the Nineteenth Amendment on September 22, 1919. In a symbolic gesture, Alabama later ratified the amendment on September 8, 1953.

Haardt's childhood friend, Alabama author Sara Mayfield wrote extensively about Haardt's marriage to H. L. Mencken in her 1968 book The Constant Circle: H.L. Menken and His Friends.{{cite book |last=Mayfield |first=Sara |title=The Constant Circle: H.L. Menken and His Friends |date=1968 |publisher=University of Alabama |location=Tuscaloosa, Alabama |isbn=9780817350635 |url=https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817350635/the-constant-circle/ |access-date=2 December 2023}} Despite Menken's reputation for being "a rock-ribbed bachelor"{{cite book |last=Mayfield |first=Sara |title=The Constant Circle: H.L. Menken and His Friends |date=1968 |publisher=University of Alabama |location=Tuscaloosa, Alabama |page=3 |isbn=9780817350635 |url=https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817350635/the-constant-circle/ |access-date=2 December 2023}} and his criticism of suffragettes,{{cite web|last=Marino|first=Patricia|title=Mencken's "Mixed Martial Arts" For And Against Women|url=http://thekramerisnow.blogspot.com/2011/05/menckens-mixed-martial-arts-for-and.html|work=The Kramer is Now|date=May 27, 2011 |accessdate=April 11, 2012}} they married in a small Episcopal ceremony in Baltimore on August 27, 1930.{{cite book |last=Mayfield |first=Sara |title=The Constant Circle: H.L. Menken and His Friends |date=1968 |publisher=University of Alabama |location=Tuscaloosa, Alabama |pages=168–169 |isbn=9780817350635 |url=https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817350635/the-constant-circle/ |access-date=2 December 2023}}

Death

She died in 1935 from meningitis.{{Citation | contribution-url = http://www.al.com/south/literary3.html | title = The Real South: Famous People | publisher = AL | contribution = Literary Figures: Sally Haardt}}

Her death was the result of complications of tuberculosis, from which she had suffered for many years.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/mencken0000bode|title=Mencken.|last=Bode|first=Carl|date=1969-01-01|publisher=Southern Illinois University Press|isbn=0809303760|location=Carbondale|language=English|url-access=registration}}

Recognition

Her short story "Absolutely Perfect" won her a nomination for the O. Henry Prize in 1933.{{Cite web |title=Haardt, Sara |url=https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/sara-haardt/ |access-date=2023-09-26 |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |language=en-US}}

References

Sources

{{cite book|last=Henley|first=Ann|title=Southern Souvenirs: Short Stories and Essays by Sara Haardt|year=1999|publisher=University of Alabama Press|location=Tuscaloosa}}
{{cite journal|last=Henley|first=Ann|title=Sara Haardt and 'the Sweet, Flowering South|journal=Alabama Heritage|year=1994|issue=34|pages=1–21}}
{{cite journal|last=Henley|first=Ann|title=The Flower of the Sahara|journal=Menckeniana: A Quarterly Review|issue=Spring|year=2006}}
{{cite book|last=Hobson|first=Fred|title= Mencken: A Biography|url=https://archive.org/details/mencken00fred|url-access=registration|year=1994|publisher=Random House|location=New York|isbn=9780394563299 }}

:*{{Cite journal|title=Review of Mencken: A Biography by Fred Hobson|journal=Publishers Weekly|date=2 May 1994|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-394-56329-9}}

:*{{cite journal|title=Review of Mencken: A Biography by Fred Hobson|date=1 April 1994|journal=Kirkus Reviews|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/fred-hobson-2/mencken-a-biography/}}

{{cite book|last=Mayfield|first=Sara|title=The Constant Circle: H. L. Mencken and His Friends|url=https://archive.org/details/constantcirclehl0000mayf|url-access=registration|year=1968|publisher=Delacorte P|location=New York}}
{{cite book|last=Mencken|first= H. L.|title= Southern Album|year=1936|publisher=Doubleday, Doran & Company|location=Garden City, NY}}
{{cite book|last=Rodgers|first=Marion Elizabeth|title=Mencken and Sara: A Life in Letters|year=1987|publisher=McGraw-Hill|location= New York}}

:*{{cite journal|title=Review: Mencken and Sara: A Life in Letters edited by Marion Elizabeth Rodgers|journal=Kirkus Reviews|date=19 January 1986|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/hl-mencken/mencken-and-sara/}}

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20110606053957/http://www.goucher.edu/x9174.xml Sara Haardt Mencken Collection at Goucher College]
[http://mappinghiddencollections.wordpress.com/category/collections/h-l-and-sara-haardt-mencken-collection/ Mapping Hidden Collections – The H.L. and Sara Haardt Mencken Collection at Goucher College]
[https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/sara-haardt/ Encyclopedia of Alabama – Sara Haardt Mencken]
[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=11927120 Findagrave.com – Sara Haardt Mencken]

Category:1898 births

Category:1935 deaths

Category:American academics of English literature

Category:Goucher College alumni

Category:American women novelists

Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:Writers from Montgomery, Alabama

Category:Goucher College faculty and staff

Category:American women short story writers

Category:20th-century American short story writers

Category:20th-century deaths from tuberculosis

Category:20th-century American women writers