Elinor (Hoyt) Wylie

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Wylie, Elinor [Hoyt] (1885–1928), born in New Jersey, published her first collection of poems in England, the anonymous, privately issued Incidental Numbers (1912). Her brilliant though brief literary career began with the publication of Nets To Catch the Wind (1921), highly polished verse influenced by the metaphysical poets, whose emotion has been described as “a passion frozen at its source.” This was followed by a similar collection, Black Armour (1923). Her four novels are distinguished by a very mannered craftmanship and a juxtaposition of artificial formality and fantasy like that of her verse. Jennifer Lorn (1923), subtitled “A Sedate Extravaganza,” deals with 18th‐century aristocrats in England and colonial India. The Venetian Glass Nephew (1925) has the same delicate color and fragility, which caused Cabell to characterize the author as a “Dresden china shepherdess.” The Orphan Angel (1926), which appeared in England as Mortal Image (1927), is an imaginative story of Shelley,who, instead of being drowned, is picked up by a Yankee ship and brought to America, where his character is contrasted with the pioneer environment. Mr. Hodge & Mr. Hazard (1928) is a more realistic tale of English life during the 1830s, after the departure of such romantic figures as Byron and Shelley, whose spirits hover over the prosaic period. One Person (1928), a passionately intense sonnet sequence, was republished in Angels and Earthly Creatures (1929). Trivial Breath (1928) is a final selection of the poems after Black Armour which she wished to preserve. Her Collected Poems (1932) and Collected Prose (1933) were edited by her husband William Rose Benét, and Last Poems appeared in 1943.

Elinor (Hoyt) Wylie 1885–1928, American poet and novelist, b. Somerville, N.J. She was famous during her life almost as much for her ethereal beauty and personality as for her melodious, sensuous poetry. Her first notable collection of poems, Nets to Catch the Wind (1921) was followed by Black Amour (1923), Trivial Breath (1928), and the posthumously published sonnet sequence, Angels and Earthly Creatures (1929). Her highly polished, articulate, and deeply emotional verse shows the influence of the metaphysical poets . Her novels, which are delicately wrought and filled with ironic fancy, include Jennifer Lorn (1923), The Venetian Glass Nephew (1925), The Orphan Angel (1926), and Mr. Hodge and Mr. Hazard (1928). After an unhappy marriage, she eloped to England with Horace Wylie in 1910; following her first husband's death she married Wylie, and although they were later divorced, she continued to write under the name Elinor Wylie. In 1923 she married William Rose Benét, poet and editor, who edited her collected poems (1932) and collected prose (1933) and wrote a study of her work (1934, 2d ed. 1971).

Bibliography: See biography by her sister, N. Hoyt (1935); study by T. A. Gray (1969).