Dates

• Existence: b.1880

Biographical Note

Nancy Byrd Turner, poet, editor and lecturer, was born on July 29, 1880 in Boydton (Mecklenburg County), Virginia, the eldest child of Rev. Byrd Thornton and Nancy Turner.

After graduating from Hannah More Academy (Baltimore, Maryland) in 1898, Turner accepted employment as a teacher. She had begun writing poetry at an early age; by 1902, her poems were being published regularly in national magazines. By the time she left Virginia for Boston in 1917 to accept a position on the editorial staff of Youth's Companion, Turner's work had appeared in such magazines as Scribner's and the Saturday Evening Post. She served as editor of the children's page for Youth's Companion from 1918 to 1922, then served on the editorial staffs of the Boston Independent, Atlantic Monthly, and Houghton Mifflin.

In 1925, Turner was accepted to the MacDowell Colony (Peterborough, New Hampshire) and retained her membership in the arts colony until 1944. Her first book of poetry, A Riband on My Rein, was published in 1929. She would eventually publish 15 books, largely composed of adult poetry and children's literature, and her writings continued to appear in magazines such as the New Yorker, Good Housekeeping and Ladies' Home Journal. Among other awards, she was the recipient of the New England Poetry Club's Golden Rose Prize in 1930 and the Virginia Writers' Club's poetry prize in 1948.

In her later years, Turner lived in Ashland (Hanover County), Virginia and wrote freelance while lecturing throughout the United States. She died on September 5, 1971.

Found in 1 Collection or Record: