Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff
Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff (1888–1959) was an American poet. Born in Manhattan, she spent much of her life in New York City. Wagstaff began writing at age 7, and had sold her first poem, to Town and Country, by age 16.[1] She served for a time as the associate editor of the International Magazine.[2] Her verse, which often dealt with sensual and classical themes, was anthologized in T.R. Smith's 1921 erotic verse collection Poetica Erotica. Her 1944 book, the Beloved Son, was a life of Jesus intended for children. She was a close friend of George Sylvester Viereck (a fellow editor of the International), whose sensual, decadent verse mirrored Wagstaff's. She praised his work, although the two had a falling out over Viereck's support of Germany in the first World War, later reconciling in 1924.[1]
Works
- Atys, a Grecian Idyl, and Other Poems (1909)
- Eris: a Dramatic Allegory (1914)
- The Book of Love (1917)
- Quiet Waters (1921)
- Bob, the Spaniel: the True Story of a Springer (1927)
- Mortality and Other Poems (1930)
- The Beloved Son (1944)
- After the Flesh (1953)
- Sonnets to Parsifal (1960)
