Audrey Wurdemann Auslander (January 1, 1911 – May 20, 1960) was an American poet. She was the youngest winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry at the age of 24, for her collection Bright Ambush.[1]
Audrey Wurdemann | |
|---|---|
 Pencil sketch of Audrey Wurdemann | |
| Born | January 1, 1911 Seattle, Washington, U.S. |
| Died | May 20, 1960 (aged 49) Miami, Florida, U.S. |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Education | University of Washington (BA) |
| Spouse | Joseph Auslander |
Biography
editWurdemann was born in Seattle, Washington. She claimed to be the great-great-granddaughter of Percy Bysshe Shelley, but no Shelley lineage can be connected to her family. She never attended grammar school, and entered Lakeside High School at the age of 11.
Her first collection of poetry, 'The House of Silk' was published when she was 16, sponsored by California poet George Sterling. She was a 1931 honors graduate of the University of Washington. After college she traveled through Asia.
She married poet and novelist Joseph Auslander in 1932 and moved to New York City, where he taught at Columbia. They moved to Washington, D.C., when Auslander was appointed the first Poet Laureate Consultant in poetry of the Library of Congress; they lived at 3117 35th Street Northwest, Washington, D.C., in the Cathedral Heights neighborhood.[2] She subsequently collaborated with him on the novels My Uncle Jan and The Islanders. They spent their last years living in Coral Gables, Florida.
Her work appeared in Harper's,[3] and Poetry magazine.[4] Their papers are held at the University of Miami.[5]
Works
editPoetry
edit- The House of Silk (1927)
- Bright Ambush (1934, winner of the 1935 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry)
- The Seven Sins (1935)
- Splendour in the Grass (1936)
- Testament of Love (1938)
Fiction
edit- My Uncle Jan (1945) with Joseph Auslander
- The Islanders (1951) with Joseph Auslander
References
edit- ^ "University of Miami Archival Collections - Archival Collections".
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Wurdemann, Audrey (Harper's Magazine)". Archived from the original on 2008-08-30.
- ^ "May 1931 | Poetry Magazine". 22 July 2021.
- ^ "University of Miami Archival Collections - Archival Collections".
External links
edit
- Oxford Companion to American Literature
- New York Times Obituary (subscription required)
- Audrey Wurdemann at Library of Congress, with 5 library catalog records