Lillian Mayfield Wright | |
---|---|
Born | October 24, 1894 Conaway, West Virginia |
Died | February 26, 1986 (aged 91) Chapel Hill, North Carolina |
Other names | Lillian Mayfield Roberts |
Occupation | Poet |
Lillian Perry Mayfield Roberts Wright (October 24, 1894 – February 26, 1986) was an American poet.
Lillian Perry Mayfield was born in Conaway, West Virginia,[1][2] the daughter of Joshua Grant Mayfield and Florence May Carter Mayfield. She attended West Virginia Wesleyan College[3] and New York University, and studied with poet Joyce Kilmer.[1]
Many of her poems and stories were published in national magazines under the name Lillian Mayfield Roberts.[4] "The best of these mountain poets is Lillian Mayfield Roberts," commented H. L. Mencken in The American Mercury in 1926.[5][6] One of her poems, "Hill Hunger", was included in the anthology Modern American Lyrics (1924).[7] Her short story "The Fly on the Window" won $1000 from the West Virginia Review.[8]
Lillian Mayfield married twice. Her first husband was George Paul Roberts; they married in 1916, and divorced in 1928.[21] Her second husband, John J. Wright, was a public health professor at the University of North Carolina; they married in 1930. She died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1986, aged 91 years.[22][23] West Virginia University holds a collection of Wright's notebooks, including the manuscript of an unpublished novel at the West Virginia & Regional History Center.[24]