 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Ida Gerding Athens" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(June 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Ida Gerding Athens | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ida Bird Gerding (1882-02-23)February 23, 1882 Cleves, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | November 4, 1977(1977-11-04) (aged 95) Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
| Occupation | Author, poet |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Notable works | Brethren (1940),John three, sixteen (1959) |
| Notable awards | Included inWho's Who of African American Writers |
| Spouse | William Wilson Athens II |
Ida Gerding Athens (bornIda Bird Gerding, February 23, 1882 – November 4, 1977) was an American author. She wrote a collection of poetry titledBrethren.[1]
Born inCleves, Ohio, she came from a poorGerman-American family.
She was included in theWho's Who of African American Writers because of her candid comments on racial tension in the United States, perhaps inspired by her own lowsocio-economic background. Her poetry from the 1930s was discussed by James Edward Smethurst inThe New Red Negro: The Literary Left and African-American Poetry, 1930–1946, together with that ofLucy Mae Turner,Frank Marshall Davis,Waring Cuney,Richard Wright andCountée Cullen.[2] Smethurst notes that Gerding Athens appeared to be separated from the mainstream of left-wing African-American literature yet "manifested important thematic and formal concerns" in her poetry that he considers characteristic of 1930s–40s African-American poetry.[3]
She was supposedly influential in choosing the geranium asOhio's state flower.[citation needed]
She married William Wilson Athens II on December 23, 1917, as his second wife. She died inCincinnati, Ohio.
Source:[4]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
 | This biographical article about an American poet born in the 1880s is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |
