Mary Sinton Lewis was born in New York City, New York, in 1876 to Carlton Thomas and Nancy Dunlap McKeen Lewis. After attending Smith College and Columbia University, as well as schools in Europe, she worked in New York City, first as a women's prison inspector, and later as a contributing editor to several magazines and newspapers. In 1907, after taking some time to travel, she married John David Leitch and the couple settled in eastern Virginia. She helped to found the Poetry Society of Virginia, serving as both its president (1933) and co-president (1944-1945). She contined to service in editorial capacities, editing the Lyric Virginia Today (vol. 1), though writing became her larger focus. Between 1922 and 1952, she authored seven collections of poetry and short fiction: The Wagon and the Star (1922), The Unrisen Morrow (1926), The Black Moon (1929), Spider Architect (1937), From Invisible Mountains (1943), Himself and I (1950), and Nightingales on the Moon (1952). Leitch died in August 1954 and is buried in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Many of her individual poems can be found online and a complete digitized version of The Wagon and the Star is available through the Internet Archive.

Source: Social Networks and Archival Context record for Leitch, Mary Sinton, 1876-1954

Julius John (J. J.) Lankes was born in 1884 in Buffalo, NY. He began working as a draftsman in 1902, but spent the majority of his professional life known for his woodcuts. His career as an artist spanned decades, during which he created woodcuts and illustrations for authors, among others. In addition to Sherwood Anderson, he worked with Robert Frost and Beatrix Potter. Lankes wrote and illustrated A Woodcut Manual, published by Henry Holt in 1932. In 2006, The University of Tampa published a new edition of this book with selected letters and other writings, edited by Welford Dunaway Taylor. (A copy of the 2006 edition is housed in Special Collections. A copy of the 1932 edition is available at the University Libraries’ Art & Architecture Library.) In addition to his illustrations and work as an artist, Lankes taught at Wells College from 1933 to about 1940. From 1943 to 1950, Lankes worked for the reproduction section of the National Advisory Council for Aeronautics (NACA, later NASA). He retired in 1951 and died in April 1960.