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Agnes Lee

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Agnes Lee
Photo of Lee taken by her first husband, Francis Watts Lee
Born
Martha Agnes Rand

(1862-03-06)March 6, 1862
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
DiedJuly 23, 1939(1939-07-23) (aged 77)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Resting placeGraceland Cemetery
Spouses
  • Francis Watts Lee
  • Otto Freer
Children1
Parent(s)William H. Rand
Harriet H. Robinson

Agnes Lee (née Martha Agnes Rand; 1862–1939) was an American poet and translator.

Biography

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Lee was born Martha Agnes Rand in Chicago on March 6, 1862.[1][a] She was the second daughter of William H. Rand, an American printer and publisher who co-founded the Rand McNally Company.[2][3] She was educated at a boarding school in Vevey, Switzerland.[2]

Lee wrote a collection of children's verse in 1898 titled The Round Rabbit.[2] Her debut poetry collection, The Legend of a Thought, was published in 1889.[2] She wrote books of poetry including The Border of the Lake in 1910, The Sharing in 1914, Faces and Open Doors in 1922, and New Lyrics and a Few Old Ones in 1931.[2][4] She translated Théophile Gautier's Enamels and Cameos and Other Poems in 1903.[2] In 1926, Lee received the guarantor's prize from Poetry Magazine.[2]

Lee's grave at Graceland Cemetery

In 1890 she married Francis Watts Lee, a photographer, and moved to Boston.[2] They had a daughter. In 1911 she married Otto Freer, a surgeon.[2] Her second husband died in 1932.

Lee died from pneumonia on July 23, 1939, at her home, 81 East Elm Street, in Chicago.[2] She was buried at Graceland Cemetery.[2][5] A collection of letters exchanged between her and poet Edgar Lee Masters is archived in the Newberry Library in Chicago.[2][6][7]

Notes

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  1. ^ Some sources give her birth year as 1868.[2] Her gravestone shows March 24, 1862.

References

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  1. ^ Lord, Charles Edward (1913). The Ancestors and Descendants of Lieutenant Tobias Lord. p. 152. Retrieved February 5, 2023 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Foundation, Poetry (May 25, 2021). "Agnes Lee". Poetry Foundation.
  3. ^ "queerplaces - Agnes Lee". www.elisarolle.com. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
  4. ^ Monroe, Harriet (1932). "Agnes Lee". Poetry. 39 (6): 324–328. JSTOR 20578451 – via JSTOR.
  5. ^ "Martha A. Freer, Poet and Widow of Surgeon, Dies". Chicago Tribune. July 24, 1939. p. 16. Retrieved February 5, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Agnes Lee-Edgar Lee Masters Papers, 1919-1933". Explore Chicago Collections.
  7. ^ "Agnes Lee-Edgar Lee Masters Papers, 1919–1933". mms.newberry.org. Archived from the original on July 14, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2021.