Elizabeth Madox Roberts

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Roberts, Elizabeth Madox (1881–1941), born in the Kentucky farming region, which she described in her fiction, graduated from the University of Chicago (1921). Her first publications were volumes of verse, In the Great Steep's Garden (1915) and Under the Tree (1922, enlarged 1930), and her later poetry is collected in Song in the Meadow (1940), containing lyrics and verse legends. The Time of Man (1926), her first novel, set in the Kentucky countryside, deals with poor whites possessed by the restless pioneer urge. My Heart and My Flesh (1927), another novel with a pastoral background, is the tragic story of a woman driven to the verge of madness. The author's scrupulous and effective re‐creation of folk cus‐toms and speech distinguishes her further fiction, which includes Jingling in the Wind (1928), a satirical fantasy whose chief character is a rainmaker on his way to a professional convention; The Great Meadow (1930), a historical novel, depicting the beauty and terror of pioneer life in Kentucky; A Buried Treasure (1931), a humorous narrative about a farmer and his wife who discover a pot of gold; The Haunted Mirror (1932), short stories of Kentucky mountain folk; He Sent Forth a Raven (1935), a novel concerned with the relation of farmers to the soil they till; Black Is My Truelove's Hair (1938), the story of a village girl and the two love affairs that shape her life; and Not by Strange Gods (1941), stories mainly about Kentucky women.

Elizabeth Madox Roberts 1886–1941, American poet and novelist, b. Perryville, Ky., grad. Univ. of Chicago, 1921. She is best known for her novels and stories of the Kentucky mountain people, whose dialect and customs she carefully represented. All her work is distinguished by the beauty and rhythm of her prose. Her novels include The Time of Man (1926), My Heart and My Flesh (1927), Jingling in the Wind (1928), The Great Meadow (1930), and Black Is My Truelove's Hair (1938). Some of her short stories are collected in The Haunted Mirror (1932) and Not by Strange Gods (1941). Her volumes of poetry include Under the Tree (1922) and Song in the Meadow (1940).