Fun Facts Friday: Elinor Wylie

Elinor Morton Wylie (7 September, 1885 – 16 December, 1928) was an American poet and novelist who was very famous during the 1930s – 1940s.

Books by Elinor Wylie*

Fun facts about Elinor Wylie:

1. Born in Somerville, NJ as Elinor Morton Hoyt to a well-known family. The author’s grandfather, Henry M. Hoyt was the governor of Pennsylvania. Helen Hoyt, her aunt, was a poet. The author’s father, Henry Martyn Hoyt, Jr, was the United states Solicitor General from 1903 – 1909).
2. As a child to a man with political ambitions, the young author spent much of her early years in Washington DC.
3. During her lifetime Ms. Wylie was notorious for having multiple affairs and marriages.
4. After her father passed away, the author left her husband and son to elope with Horace Wylie, a Washington lawyer, himself with a wife and children.
5. The couple moved to England because they were ostracized by their family, friends and the press. They lived under an false name which caused such a big scandal in Washington DC that the author’s estranged husband committed suicide.
6. In 1912 Ms. Wylie published a book of poems titled Incidental Number.
7. The couple tried to have another child but failed numerous times. They came back to the United States already divorced.
8. Living in New York City, the author hung around literary circle, her new friends encouraged her to submit her poems to Poetry magazine, which published four of her poems.
9. In 1921 the author published her first poetry book, Nets to Catch the Wind, which was an immediate success.
10. The author, who suffered from high blood pressure all of her adult life, succumbed to a stroke at age 43.

Books by Elinor Wylie*

Zohar — Man of la Book
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account