Pitter, Ruth

(1897-1992)

   She was born at Ilford, Essex, to parents who were both teachers in London's East End. Living as she did on the edge of London, she found much to stimulate her early interest in poetry. Her education was at Coborn School for Girls, Bow Road, London. Hilaire Belloc helped to publish her First Poems in 1920, and she rapidly established a sound reputation on both sides of the Atlantic. In total she produced eighteen volumes of verse; her work was praised by many poets as being highly original. From 1956 to 1960 she appeared regularly on the BBC's The Brains Trust, one of the first television "talk" programs. Her awards include the Hawthornden Prize (1937) and the Heinemann Award for Literature (1954), and she was the first woman recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry (1955). She was made a Companion of Literature (1974) and a Commander of the British Empire (1979). Some of her poems: "A Solemn Meditation," "An Old Woman Speaks of the Moon," "For Sleep, or Death," "Help, Good Shepherd," "The Bat," "The Beautiful Negress," "The Coffin-Worm," "The Viper," "Time's Fool."

   Sources: A Treasury of Poems for Worship and Devotion, Charles L. Wallis, ed. Harper, 1959. Enitharmon Press (http://www.enitharmon.co.uk/authors/viewAuthor.asp?AID=39). Fellow Mortals: An Anthology of Animal Verse. Roy Fuller, ed. Macdonald and Evans, 1981. Modern British Poetry. 7th rev. ed. Louis Untermeyer, ed. Harcourt, Brace, 1962. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Book of Christian Verse. Lord David Cecil, ed. Oxford University Press, 1940. Women's Poetry of the 1930s: A Critical Anthology. Jane Dowson, ed. Routledge, 1966.