Clarice Short

Clarice Short (March 30, 1910 – December 15, 1977) was an American poet and academic.

Clarice Short
BornMarch 30, 1910
Ellinwood, Kansas
DiedDecember 15, 1977
New Mexico.[1]
OccupationPoet

Early life and education

Clarice Short was born in Ellinwood, Kansas, and grew up in the Arkansas Ozarks, and later near Taos, New Mexico. She attended the University of Kansas,[2] where she earned her B. A. and M. A.,[3] She received her PhD from Cornell University in 1941.[3][4]

Career

Short taught in the English department at the University of Utah for 30 years, starting in 1946.[5] At the University of Utah, she published research and gave talks on 19th century literature. She was active in University life, and was elected to the Theater council in 1952.[6] At the University of Utah, an award for excellence in teaching was named after her.[7] Short was president of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association from 1965 to 1967.[8][9]

Her poetry was published in many journals, including the Western Humanities Review, Carolina Quarterly,[10] and Poetry Northwest.[11] Her work was published in the book Images and Impressions with fellow University of Utah professors and poets Ed Leuders and Brewster Ghiselin.

There are two published collections of Short's poetry. She published The Old One and the Wind in 1973. Later, Emma Lou Thayne, whom Short had taught in 1970,[12] became Short's literary executor. Thayne helped bring Short's second collection, The Owl on the Aerial, to posthumous publication, and wrote an introduction for it. The Owl on the Aerial is a collection of forty-five poems, and it also contains a portrait of the poet drawn from her diaries by Barbara Duree, who selected the poems and produced the book.

Reviews and criticism

Reviewers of the poems in Short's first volume, The Old One and the Wind, saw the influence of Robert Frost.[13] In his review of The Owl and the Aerial, poet Jim Elledge says the poems have a mystic quality. Roscoe L. Buckland of Western Washington University calls Clarice Short "a poet of the first rank." He comments on the poems' technical quality, and compares her nature poems to Thoreau. He says her human portraits have the sadness and sympathy of Keats or Edward Arlington Robinson.[14] Short is the subject of Emma Lou Thayne's article "Clarice Short: Earthly Academic" in the Association for Mormon Letters "AML Annual 1994, vol.1, p. 132.[15]

Poetry collections

References
  1. Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 28 November 2018), memorial page for Dr Clarice Short (30 Mar 1910–15 Dec 1977), Find A Grave Memorial no. 135956777, citing Fairlawn Burial Park, Hutchinson, Reno County, Kansas, USA ; Maintained by Diane Hurst (contributor 48381432) .
  2. "Utah Daily Chronicle – 13 May 1964 – Teacher who Likes to Learn". newspapers.lib.utah.edu.
  3. "Utah Daily Chronicle – 23 May 1966 – Administrator and Six Faculty Receive Tribute". newspapers.lib.utah.edu.
  4. "Poet of the Week: Clarice Short". A Brie Grows in Brooklyn.
  5. "Salt Lake Telegram – 14 June 1946 – Regents Approve Appointments". newspapers.lib.utah.edu.
  6. "Utah Daily Chronicle – 8 April 1953 – Nine Council Posts Open". newspapers.lib.utah.edu.
  7. "Vernal Express – 2 July 1986 – Page 14". newspapers.lib.utah.edu.
  8. "Utah Daily Chronicle – 12 October 1966 – Group to Give". newspapers.lib.utah.edu.
  9. Hand, Mollie. "Past Serving Members". rmmla.org.
  10. "Utah Daily Chronicle – 9 November 1966 – Dr. Clarice Short to Give Views". newspapers.lib.utah.edu.
  11. "Poetry Northwest, volume 12, Winter 1971–72" (PDF).
  12. "Archives West: Clarice Short papers, 1904–1975". archiveswest.orbiscascade.org.
  13. Poulsen, Richard C. (November 27, 1974). "The Old One and the Wind by Clarice Short (review)". Western American Literature. 9 (2): 145–147. doi:10.1353/wal.1974.0025 – via Project MUSE.
  14. Buckland, Roscoe L. (November 27, 1992). "The Owl on the Aerial by Clarice Short (review)". Western American Literature. 26 (4): 375–375. doi:10.1353/wal.1992.0176 – via Project MUSE.
  15. "AML Proceedings/Annuals Index, 1976–2004 – Dawning of a Brighter Day".
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