May Riley Smith
May Riley Smith (May 27, 1842 – January 14, 1927) was an American poet and clubwoman.
May Riley Smith | |
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Born | May Riley May 27, 1842 Rochester, NY |
Died | January 14, 1927 Manhattan, New York |
Occupation | poet |
Biography[]
May (or Mary) Louise Riley was born on May 27, 1842 in Rochester, New York.[a] She attended Brockport Collegiate Institute. She married Albert Smith, of Springfield, Illinois, a bridge engineer, on March 31, 1869,[2] and they had one son.[1]
Soon, they removed to New York City,[1] 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.[3]
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".[1] Many of her poems were devotional and were reprinted in hymn books.[4] Her poems were also published in magazines such as Harper's Magazine.[5]
Smith died in Manhattan on January 14, 1927.
Notes[]
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Willard & Livermore 1893, p. 669.
- ^ John William Leonard (1914). Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada. American Commonwealth Company. pp. 763–.
- ^ "MRS. MAY RILEY SMITH.; Poet, Honorary President of Sorosism Club, Dies In Her 85th Year". The New York Times. 1927-01-15. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-05-01.
- ^ "Author of Sunday School Poetry: May Riley Smith". The Topeka Daily Capital. March 1, 1885.
- ^ Smith, May Riley (January 1890). "Trust". Harper's Magazine. ISSN 0017-789X. Retrieved 2019-05-01.
Attribution[]
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Public domain ed.). Charles Wells Moulton.
External links[]
Works related to Woman of the Century/Woman of the Century/Mary Louise Riley Smith at Wikisource
- Works by or about May Riley Smith at Internet Archive
- May Riley Smith at the Online Books Page
- 1842 births
- 1927 deaths
- People from Rochester, New York
- American women poets
- Clubwomen
- 19th-century American poets
- Daughters of the American Revolution people
- 19th-century American women