May Swenson

Kirstin Hotelling Zona (Illinois State University)

Ed. by Nick Selby, University of East Anglia
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 28 May 1913
Died 4 Dec 1989
Activity 1954-1989

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Children's/Young Adult writer
Playwright / Dramatist
Poet
Translator

Resources

Swenson's Works

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The American poet May Swenson was born in Logan, Utah, to first-generation Swedish immigrants, Margaret (Hellberg) and Dan Arthur Swenson. Inspired by the Mormon missionaries who helped to save his father's family from financial destitution, Dan Swenson attended Utah State Agricultural College (now Utah State University) where, in 1912, he began a life-long career as a woodworker in the Department of Mechanical Arts. Resourceful and determined, Margaret Swenson worked hard as a young woman to make a comfortable home, canning her own fruits and vegetables, pressing her own cider, keeping bees for their wax and honey, and making most of her family's clothes. The eldest of ten children, May assisted her mother with these domestic duties while helping to raise her brothers and sisters. It is…

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1437 words

Citation: Zona, Kirstin Hotelling. "May Swenson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 March 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4296, accessed 27 November 2024.]

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