Margaret Fishback, laterMargaret Fishback Antolini (March 10, 1900 – September 25, 1985), was an American poet and prose author from the late 1920s until the 1960s. During the 1930s, she was reputed to be the highest-paid female advertisingcopywriter in the world.

Born inWashington, D.C., she earned a degree fromGoucher College before joiningMacy's as a divisional advertising copywriter in 1926.^[1] During the 1930s, she was reputed to be the world's highest-paid female advertising copywriter.^[2] She was published inThe New Yorker, theNew York Herald Tribune, and several well-known women's magazines.^[3] According to a large collection of her papers held by Duke's Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History, "Fishback contributed to advertising campaigns forArrow Shirts,Borden's,Chef Boy-Ar-Dee,Clairol,DuPont,Gimbels,Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P),Hanes Hosiery,Martex, Norsk,Pabst Blue Ribbon,Seagram's,Simmons Beautyrest, andWrigley, among several others."^[4]

Fishback died inCamden,Maine, at the age of 85.^[5] Fishback was married to Alberto Gastone Antolini, the chief rug buyer for Macy's, from 1935 to 1956. They had one son, Anthony Antolini.^[6]

An extensive selection of Fishback's poetry first published in periodicals later appeared in book form. Among these collections were the following:

• I Feel Better Now, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1932 (poems originally appearing in theNew York World,The New Yorker,Life,The Saturday Evening Post,The New York American,Judge, andVanity Fair)
• I Take It Back, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1935 (poems originally appearing inThe New Yorker,The Saturday Evening Post,Harper's Bazaar,Life,Ladies' Home Journal,The New York American,The New York Sun,The World,Judge,Vanity Fair,Redbook,Buffalo Town Tidings,The Stage, andThe Forum Magazine)
• Poems Made Up to Take Out, New York: David McKay Co., Inc., 1963 (poems originally appearing inBetter Living,Collier's,Glamour,Good Housekeeping,Ladies' Home Journal, theNew York Herald Tribune,Pictorial Review,Reader's Digest,American Girl,American Home,The New York Times,The Saturday Evening Post,The Wall Street Journal,This Week,Woman's Day, andWomen's Wear Daily)
• One to a Customer, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1937 (an omnibus comprisingI Feel Better Now andPoems Made Up to Take Out,supra, together with two other volumes:Out of My Head andI Take It Back)
• Time for a Quick One, New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1940. Poems originally appearing in various American magazines.

Fishback also wrote some books for children and collaborated with artistHilary Knight to produceA Child's Book of Natural History (USA: Platt & Monk, 1969), a revision and extension ofA Child's Primer of Natural History byOliver Herford. She wrote a book of etiquette,Safe Conduct: When to Behave—And Why, and a humorous guide to parenthood under the titleLook Who's a Mother! A Book About Babies for Parents, Expectant and Otherwise.

• Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, byKathleen Rooney, loosely based on the life of Margaret Fishback, was released by St. Martin's Press in 2017.

• Quotations related toMargaret Fishback at Wikiquote
• The Margaret Fishback PapersArchived 2019-11-08 at theWayback Machine from the Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library,Duke University.
• American National Biography - Margaret Fishback Antolini

• 1900 births
• 1985 deaths
• American humorous poets
• American women poets
• Goucher College alumni
• 20th-century American poets
• 20th-century American women writers
• Women in advertising
• Poets from Washington, D.C.

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