Hortense Flexner

Hortense Flexner King (April 12, 1885 – September 28, 1973) was an American poet, playwright, and professor.

Life[]

She attended Bryn Mawr College. She graduated from the University of Michigan, with a B.A. in 1907, and a M.A. in 1910.^[1] She worked for the Louisville Herald. She worked with her sisters, Jennie Maas Flexner and Carolyn A. Flexner, in getting the vote out in Louisville when Kentucky women won the right to vote in school board elections in 1912.^[2]

She married Wyncie King (1884–1961). They moved to Philadelphia. He was a contributor to the Saturday Evening Post. She taught at Bryn Mawr, from 1926 to 1940, and at Sarah Lawrence College from 1942 to 1950.^[3] They were friends of Susan Clay Sawitzky,^[4] and Martha Gellhorn.^[5]

In 1961, she returned to Louisville.^[6] Marguerite Yourcenar translated her poetry into French.^[7]

Her papers are held at the University of Louisville.^[8]

She is buried alongside her husband in the Sutton Island Cemetery, in Cranberry Isles, Maine.^[9]

Works[]

Poetry

Clouds and Cobblestones 1920.
The Stubborn Root and Other Poems (1930)
North Window and Other Poems (1943)
Poems (1961)
Selected Poems (1963), with an introduction by English poet Laurie Lee
Marguerite Yourcenar (ed.) Presentation Critique d'Hortense Flexner Suivie d'un Choix de Poems (1969),
The Selected Poems of Hortense Flexner (1975)
Half a Star: Poems by Hortense Flexner

Plays

Voices (1916)
Mahogany (1921)
The Faun (1921)
The Broken God
The Road
The Little Miracle
Three Wise Men of Gotham

References[]

^ "A Maine Writer: Maine State Library".
^ Allen, Ann. "Jennie Maas Flexner, 1882-1994: Louisville Librarian and Suffragist". H-Kentucky. H-Net Commons. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
^ "Sarah Lawrence Magazine: The Value of Money". Slc.edu. Archived from the original on 2011-05-22. Retrieved 2011-08-11.
^ Lindsey Apple (1997). Cautious rebel: a biography of Susan Clay Sawitzky. Kent State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87338-579-4.
^ Caroline Moorehead (2004). Gellhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-8050-7696-7.
^ Kleber, John E. (2001). The encyclopedia of Louisville. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-2890-0.
^ Alesch, Jeanine S. (1 January 2007). "Une femme obscure: Marguerite Yourcenar Translates Hortense Flexner". Dalhousie French Studies. 78: 83–106. JSTOR 40838379.
^ "Hortense Flexner (King) Papers". University of Louisville. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
^ "Hortense Flexner King". FindAGrave.com. Retrieved 18 October 2019.