Ridge, Lola

Irish-American radical poet. Editor of Broom, 1922-23, and contributing editor of New masses, 1926-?

Lola Ridge was an American poet born in Ireland and raised in Australia. Her published works include Ghetto and Other Poems (1918); Red Flag (1927); Firehead (1929); and Dance of Fire (1935). Despite frequent ill health, she was associated with Harold Loeb and others in editing the little magazine Broom (1921-24), and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1934.

Lola Ridge and David Lawson, undated

American poet Lola Ridge was born Rose Emily Ridge in Dublin, Ireland in 1873. At age three she and her mother moved first to Sydney, Australia and then to New Zealand. She took classes through Trinity College (England) and studied art under Julian Ashton at the Academie Julienne in Australia. She moved to New York in 1908. Her radical poetry appeared in The Ghetto and Other Poems (1918), Emma Goldman's monthly, Mother Earth, as well as in more mainstream periodicals. She wrote poetry on radical themes, and about her anarchist friends Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. After World War I, Ridge revived Alfred Kreymborg's magazine, Others, and served as the American editor of Broom. In 1923 she won Poetry magazine's Guarantor's Prize. During her lifetime, Ridge published five books of poetry, including Firehead, about the Crucifixion. She completed Firehead in 1929 at the Yaddo retreat. In the 1930s she visited Paris and Baghdad, and a Guggenheim fellowship enabled her to travel to Taos, New Mexico, and parts of Mexico. She received the Shelley Memorial Award in 1934 and 1935. Lola Ridge died of cardiomyopathy in 1941.

Poet.

Born Rose Emily Ridge, Dublin, Ireland, 1883. At age five she and her mother moved first to New Zealand and then to Sydney, Australia. Ridge moved to New York in 1907; published her poetry in a variety of periodicals including Emma Goldman's Mother Earth, and a book, The Ghetto and Other Poems, in 1918. In 1923 she won Poetry magazine's Guarantor's Prize. Wrote poetry on radical themes, including her anarchist friends Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. Her work appeared in a variety of politically radical periodicals as well as more mainstream publications. Published other books, including book, Firehead, 1929, a response to execution of Sacco and Vanzetti. Received Shelley Memorial Award in 1934 and 1935. Died 1941.