Maryland
Click an author to read a biographical essay prepared by a local student.
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--Susan Davis, St. Timothy's School, Stevenson, Maryland
It is conveniently symbolic that one of the most famous literary works in America was composed aboard ship in the Baltimore Harbor of the Chesapeake Bay, thus linking the two great regional influences on the literature of Maryland. When lawyer and amateur scribbler Francis Scott Key was inspired to compose a poem about a "star-spangled banner" waving above Fort McHenry in the late summer of 1814, he unsuspectingly put his home state of Maryland on the literary map. The writers of this eclectic state, like Key, often seem to have sprung out of nowhere. There are few literary circles, philosophical movements, or influential patrons to speak of. Instead, Maryland's writers emerge on the literary landscape as iconoclasts, piecing together the stuff of their writing out of their love of language and their own individual lives.
Though if anything has made its mark on Maryland's writers, it has been the contrast of city and country. Baltimore, a bustling port city, is an amalgamation of cultures, as much defined by its blue-collar, immigrant neighborhoods and the bluesy influx of African-Americans migrating from the South as it has been by the staunchly upper crust society that has held sway over its highbrow culture. Journalists have flourished here, often as a prelude to evolving into writers of other genres. Respected educational institutions have attracted budding writers—and in some cases have convinced them to stay. Writers and journalists have likewise been drawn to the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. In contrast, the shores of the Chesapeake and the Atlantic—and the crook of farmland, pines, and swamp that lies between them—have generated another group of writers, still widely different from one another yet pulsing with an earthy naturalness that seems to emanate from the tides and the land.
Click on the following heading to read more about Maryland writers.
Maryland-DC ConnectionAlong the Waterfront: The Eastern Shore and Chesapeake Bay
The Present
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Booming Baltimore With strong family ties to Baltimore—ultimately, Poe would marry his young Baltimore
cousin, Virginia—the poet and father of the detective story established his literary reputation while residing in the city. A Baltimore press published Poe's second collection
of poems in 1829 to warm reviews. Kennedy was one of the judges at the Baltimore Saturday Visiter who found merit in Poe's short story, "MS Found in a Bottle," awarding it
a $50 prize in 1833. Kennedy also recommended his friend Poe for a position in 1935 at the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, where Poe served as an influential editor for a
number of years. Stopping in Baltimore to visit family and settle some business, Poe was found unconscious in a tavern in October of 1849. He was later buried in the family plot in
Baltimore (the debate over the cause of his death continues—a recent theory holds that he died of rabies). Meanwhile, Frances E. W. Harper--who would later become a respected poet and fiction
writer (the first African American to publish a story in the U.S.), abolitionist lecturer, and supporter of the Underground Railroad—was born in 1825 to free parents in Baltimore.
Raised and educated by relatives when she was orphaned, she traveled to Ohio and Pennsylvania in her adult years. Her exile from Maryland, the result of new slavery laws,
spurred her activism as she continued to write and incorporate her stories and poems in lectures urging social reform. As the century waned and a new one began, some of the key figures of American literature
began to converge on Baltimore. On June 9, 1909, Mark Twin gave his last public address at St. Timothy's School for Girls in Catonsville, offering the advice, "First, don't smoke to
excess. Second, don't drink to excess. Third, don't marry to excess." Emily Post may have dictated American manners from her New York penthouse, but she was born (in 1876) and educated in Baltimore. Before publishing her book,
Etiquette, in 1922, and establishing herself as the maven of fingerbowls and correct stationery, Post was a popular writer of romantic stories and travelogues. Upton Sinclair, who would publish in 1906 the muckraking classic,
The Jungle, was born in Baltimore to an aristocratic Southern family that had seen better days (his father was a liquor salesman) in 1878. He lived in Baltimore
until he was ten. Gertrude Stein lived with an aunt from 1892-1893 and later attended medical school at Johns Hopkins University—before she moved to Paris and discovered
Picasso and Alice B. Toklas. Hard-boiled detective writer Dashiell Hammett was born in St. Mary's County, Maryland, in 1894, and grew up in Baltimore, joining as a young man the
Baltimore office of the Pinkerton Agency. His classic novel, The Maltese Falcon (1930) would give readers the quintessential private detective in Sam Spade. Zora Neale Hurston (Their Eyes Were Watching God
, 1937) finished her high school education at Morgan Academy (1917-1920). Leon Uris, born in 1924 and best known for the epic novel Exodus
(1958), emerged from a poor Jewish neighborhood in Baltimore to become a popular writer and champion of the human spirit against overwhelming odds. Popular author Tom Clancy
was born in Baltimore in 1947, attended Loyola High School in Towson, studied English at Loyola College, and sold insurance in Maryland before he launched the era of the techno-thriller with Hunt for the Red October (1984). F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald lived in Baltimore from 1932 to 1935, in-between their final raucous sojourn in Europe and Scott's declining days in Hollywood. Zelda underwent
psychiatric treatment at the Johns Hopkins and Sheppard-Pratt Hospitals, writing all the while Save Me the Waltz and a play that was performed by Baltimore's Vagabond Junior
Players. "The Crack-Up," F. Scott Fitzgerald's brutally honest memoir, was written during this period. Both Fitzgeralds are buried at St. Mary's Church in Rockville.
The Fitzgeralds may have been drawn to Baltimore for its medical facilities, but perhaps they were also inclined toward the city's pre-eminent man of letters, H.L. Mencken, who
had published Scott's work during his creative heyday. For it is Baltimore's Mencken, the acerbic wit who was born in 1880 to a German family that made its living selling cigars,
whose voice booms from the Maryland city's streets and demands to be heard. Mencken began his career as a journalist, first for the Baltimore Herald (1889), then for the Sun
newspapers (1906). Richard Wright records Mencken's influence as a man of letters and principles in his memoir, Black Boy, for instance. Refusing to suffer fools of any sort
lightly, Mencken set the critical tone for the Jazz Age, primarily from the editorial desks of The Smart Set and the American Mercury (which he established in 1924). His meticulous
manipulation of language set a standard for the fine art of elegant skewering, Best known for his American Language, Mencken died in Baltimore in 1956, leaving much of his literary estate to his beloved Enoch Pratt Library.
Twentieth-century poetry has had its roots in Baltimore as well. Karl Shapiro, editor of the influential Poetry magazine (1948-1950) and Prairie Schooner (1956-1966) was born in
Baltimore in 1913. Josephine Jacobsen graduated from Baltimore's Roland Park Country Day School in 1926 (the same year that Beat poet Frank O'Hara was born here). A long-time
resident of Baltimore, Jacobsen served as poetry consultant to the Library of Congress in the 1970s and published In the Crevice of Time: New and Collected Poems in 1995. Feminist poet Adrienne Rich (whose collection,
Diving into the Wreck, won the National Book Award in 1974) was born in Baltimore in 1929 and raised in a hothouse of intellectual
creativity: her father was a doctor and professor at Johns Hopkins University, her mother a gifted pianist. Lucille Clifton, winner of the National Book Award for her collection,
Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems, 1988-2000, has lived and taught in Maryland since she was named writer in residence at Coppin State College. Now a
Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Mary's College, she lives in Columbia, Maryland. Ogden Nash, a Baltimore resident from 1931 until his death in 1974, is probably
the city's best known—and best loved—poet. Remembered for his light verse and deft social satire, Nash may be among the most often quoted of American poets. Remember "Candy is dandy..."?
The streets of Baltimore continue to come alive in the works of contemporary writers Russell Baker and Anne Tyler. Baker, following in the footsteps of his idol Mencken, began his writing career as a reporter for the Baltimore
Sun in 1947. He was later honored with a Pulitzer Prize in 1979 for Distinctive Commentary for his regular column for the New York Times. His memoir of Baltimore during the Depression, Growing Up
, garnered a second Pulitzer for Biography in 1983. The novels of Anne Tyler depict the inhabitants of the city's varied neighborhoods—along with their street front churches and homesick
restaurants--with a humane and humorous touch. In Breathing Lessons, the novel for which Tyler received the Pulitzer Prize in 1989, the story's lost middle-aged couple hails
from a Baltimore's middle-class neighborhood so familiar they could be from Anywhere, USA. The Maryland-DC Connection Along the Waterfront: The Eastern Shore and Chesapeake Bay
John Barth, born in 1930 in Cambridge, may be known as the father of cerebral post-modernist fiction in America, as our greatest proponent of meta-fiction, but his writing
is grounded in the sights and sounds of the Eastern shore—be they the mating rituals of crabs, recipes for beaten biscuits, or the nuances of local dialect (all represented in his early novel, The Floating Opera
). Barth studied journalism at Johns Hopkins University and pioneered the highly regarded creative writing program there before retiring permanently to
the Eastern Shore. His classic short story, "Lost in the Funhouse," is set on the road to and within a popular amusement park in Ocean City. Barth won the National Book Award, after several other nominations, in 1972 for Chimera
. His writing since the fifties has marked American fiction in a way—both absurdist and realist, playful and deadly serious—that can be attributed to no other contemporary writer.
Across the bay in Annapolis, two popular writers for two very different audiences emerged on the scene. James M. Cain was born in the state capital in 1892; he was raised in
Chestertown, where his father served as president of Washington College, worked as a reporter in Baltimore (at the Sun) until 1923, and returned to Hyattsville after establishing
his literary reputation in New York and Hollywood. That reputation was built on gritty thrillers like The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) that would come to define the style
and formula of the hard-boiled mystery. Equally popular for her sensitive tales for young adult readers, Cynthia Voigt began her writing life while working as a teacher in and around
Annapolis (my husband remembers her fondly as his English teacher at the Key School in the 1970s). She is best known for The Homecoming (1981), Dicey's Song (which won the Newbery Medal in 1983), and Solitary Blue
(Newbery Honor Book, 1984). Few readers know the work of writer Sophie Kerr (1980-1965), who was born and died in the town of Denton. More likely, novice writers have heard of the writing prize named for her,
the largest given to an American undergraduate, endowed in her will to Washington College on the Eastern Shore. Kerr, a popular writer of romance fiction for women before the genre went soft, also worked as managing editor of the
Women's Home Companion magazine in the early years of the twentieth century. Her success as a writer of fiction and as a journalist has fueled a lasting legacy to the writing of the state of Maryland.
The Miscellaneous Present Bibliography Bell, Madison Smartt. Home page. 31 August 2001. Chang, Young. "JHU's Stephen Dixon Reflects on His Life's Work." Johns Hopkins University Newsletter 16 October 1997. Johns Hopkins University. 28 August 2001.
Clancy, Tom. "Re: Tom's Life??" 31 October 1997. alt.books.tom-clancy . Reprinted in Stephen Cosby, "Clancy FAQ: Tom Clancy on Tom Clancy," 29 August 1999. 28 August 2001.
"Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961)." 2000. Books and Writers. 31 August 2001.
Dett, Robert Nathaniel. "Frances E.W. Harper." 8 December 2000. 23 August 2001. http://pages.nyu.edu/~jrk3150/harper.html .Dickinson, Laurie. " Zora Neale Hurston." Voices from the Gaps: Women Writers of Color
. Toni McNaron and Carol Miller. University of Minnesota, Department of English and Program in American Studies. 23 August 2001.
Edelman, Dave. "Barth: FAQ." 2001. The John Barth Info Center. 28 August 2001. "Edgar Allen Poe Mystery." University of Maryland Medical News (1996 Releases). 24
September 1996. University of Maryland Medical System. 31 August 2001. "Elizabeth Spires." Litlinks. 1998-1999. Bedford-St. Martin's. 8 December 2000.
Elmegreen, Lauren. "Learning about Cynthia Voigt." 8 December 2001.
"Emily Post." 2001. Emily Post Institute. 23 August 2001. "Famous Marylanders." 31 July 2000. Sailor: Maryland's Public Information Network. 15 November 2000.
Filreis, Al. "Gertrude Stein—Brief Biography." 8 March 2001. Adapted from the Encyclopedia Britannica. 31 August 2001. "A Fitzgerald Chronology." F. Scott Fitzgerald Centenary. 7 March 1997. Board of Trustees of the University of South Carolina. 31 August 2001. "Frances E.W. Harper." LitLinks. 1998-1999. Bedford-St. Martin's. 23 August 2001. "Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-?). Underground Railroad Site. University of California, Davis. 23 August 2001. "Frank O'Hara." Poetry Exhibits
. Academy of American Poets. 31 August 2001. Grimes, Martha. Home page. 31 August 2001.
"Guide to the Papers of Katherine Anne Porter: Biography." 12 February 1999. University of Maryland Libraries. 31 August 2001. Horn, Dottie. "It's Down to Earth for Gertrude Stein."
Endeavors: Research at Carolina (April 1996). 20 May 1996. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 31 August, 2001.
"Humanities Department, H.L. Mencken Room and Collection." Enoch Pratt Free Library, State Library Resource Center, Central Library. 31 August 2001. "The Instant of Knowing: Lectures, Criticism, and Occasional Prose, Josephine Jacobsen." University of Michigan Press. 31 August 2001.
"James M. Cain." University of Maryland Libraries. 15 November 2001. "Josephine Jacobsen." Poetry Exhibits. Academy of American Poets. 31 August 2001. "Karl Shapiro." Poetry Exhibits. Academy of American Poets. 31 August 2001.
Lear, Linda. "Biography: Rachel Carson." 1998. RachelCarson.org. 8 December 2000. "Lucille Clifton." Poetry Exhibits. Academy of American Poets. 12 August 2001. Md. V.F. Enoch Pratt Free Library. "Literary Maryland." Photocopy. Baltimore: Enoch Pratt Free Library, 1993.
Md. V.F. Enoch Pratt Free Library. "Maryland Authors." Photocopy. Baltimore: Enoch Pratt Free Library, 30 August 1990. Murphy, Eileen. "Reading Up on Sophie Kerr, the Woman Who Turned a Small Eastern
Shore College into a Literary Mecca." Baltimore Citypaper Online, News and Features, Feature: Book Smart (17 May 2000). 28 pars. 31 August 2001. "Poe in Baltimore." 1 August 1998. The Edgar Allen Poe Society of Baltimore. 31 August 2001. "Poe and Richmond." November 2000. Edgar Allen Poe Museum, Richmond, Virginia. 31
August 2001. Pope, Deborah. "Rich's Life and Career." Modern American Poetry (1999-2001): 3 pars. From The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States. Oxford University
Press, 1995. 31 August 2001. "A Short Biography of Frederick Douglass." 1997. Fremarjo Enterprises. 21 November 2000.
Simms, L. Moody, Jr. "Kennedy, John Pendleton." Documenting the American South. 7
November 2000. Academic Affairs Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 31 August 2001.
Smith, Frances R. "Ogden Nash." 30 July 2001. Office of the Secretary of State, Maryland. 23 August 2001. Streufert, Duane. "Francis Scott Key." 20 November 1994.
The United States Flag Page. 31 August 2001. Suri, Manil. Home Page. 2000. W.W. Norton. 2 September 2001. Acknowledgments
Susan Davis is an English teacher at St. Timothy's School in Stevenson, Maryland.
The nineteenth century saw Baltimore evolve from a sleepy village into a lively commercial center and mix of cultures. Writer and politician John Pendleton Kennedy bridged these
two extremes. His novels, primarily historical romances, depicted the life of the plantation (particularly Swallow Barn, 1832) and a connection to his Southern heritage, while
Kennedy's political sympathies (his political career culminated in his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1938) reflected the complex issues of the urban and the rural,
the South and the city, of the border state he represented. Kennedy served as a mentor to Baltimore's most illustrious writer,
Edgar Allen Poe.
With such close proximity to the nation's capital and its hub of government offices, educational institutions and nationally respected newspapers, the Maryland suburbs of
Washington, DC, have been home numerous notable writers. Katherine Anne Porter (whose Collected Stories garnered both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in
1965) spent her last years in College Park, Maryland. She died there in 1980, leaving her literary effects to the University of Maryland. Rachel Carson lived in Silver Spring,
Maryland, and wrote most of her major works while living in Maryland. She earned a master's degree in zoology at Johns Hopkins University in 1932, wrote feature stories for the Baltimore Sun
, and taught at the University of Maryland before establishing a long career at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Her call to arms about the misuse of pesticides, Silent Spring
(1962) has been referred to as one of the "most influential books of the last fifty years." As one might expect, Maryland's DC suburbs also harbor journalists and
media watchdogs from across the political spectrum who continue to make an impact on American thought and contemporary affairs.
It doesn't take long to travel from Easton to Cambridge on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The view from a car window takes in farms and fishermen, pine thickets and swampy shallows.
It is unlikely the view appeared much different to the two key literary figures who arose from this landscape—Frederick Douglass and John Barth—but one cannot imagine two
writers who would have experienced the land more divergently. Douglass, who wrote the influential abolitionist memoir, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1895), was
born a slave on a plantation near Easton. Though the practice was illegal, he was taught to read by Sophia Auld while he worked as a houseboy at her home in Baltimore. Returning to
an Eastern shore plantation as a teenager, Douglass encountered abuse at the hands of a notorious slave breaker and was sent back to Baltimore, where he later escaped to
Massachusetts in the guise of a ship worker. Meanwhile, he had written the book that would fuel the abolitionist movement and record for posterity the cruelties of slavery.
Too many contemporary Maryland writers go unmentioned here. There is historian Taylor Branch, known for his prize-winning portrait of the civil rights era, Parting the Waters,
who lives in Baltimore. Christopher Tilghman captures the Eastern Shore in his fiction. Mystery writer Martha Grimes spent her early summers at her mother's hotel in Western
Maryland. Poet Laureates of Maryland have included Reed Whittemore, Linda Pastan, Roland Flint, and Michael Collier. Poet Elizabeth Spires and her husband, novelist Madison
Smartt Bell, inspire emerging writers at the writing program at Goucher College in Towson; double National Book Award nominee Stephen Dixon and NBA winner Alice McDermott (for Charming Billy
in 1998) anchor the Writing Seminar at Johns Hopkins University. Bombay-born writer Manil Suri (The Death of Vishnu, 2000) teaches mathematics at the
University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus. The vitality and range of writing that erupts from the state of Maryland (only touched upon here) suggests a variation on an old
Baltimore advertising slogan: not only are we "the city that reads" but we are also the state that writes.
Beasley, Chris. "Upton Sinclair." 2000-2001.
The Literature Network. 31 August 2001.
I wish to thank the many friends, family members, and colleagues, who have helped compile this list of Maryland writers. In particular, I wish to acknowledge the help of librarians at
the University of Maryland Baltimore County and the Enoch Pratt Free Library (especially Mendy Gunter), as well as Sunil Freeman of the Writer's Center in Bethesda and George
Brown of the Maryland Writers' Association. Special thanks go to Caroline Langrall, who served as student assistant on this project and whose tireless research contributed significantly to its breadth.