Stevie Smith
(1902–1971)

Stevie Smith shows intelligence, honesty, and wit in her poetry. Her poems are hard to categorize because of their variations in tone, form, and perspective. One critic calls her work "a forest of themes and attitudes." She is, the critic continues, "as surprising as she is skillful, her finesse equal to her boldness."

This independent-minded poet was born Florence Margaret Smith in Hull, Yorkshire. Small as a child, she was nicknamed "Stevie" after a famous jockey. She attended local schools, worked for many years in a magazine publisher's office in London, and often gave poetry readings on English radio and television. Her first novel, Novel on Yellow Paper, appeared in 1936, and her first collection of poems, A Good Time Was Had by All, in 1937.

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