Phelps, Ruth Shepard, 1876-1949

Ruth Shepard Phelps was an associate professor of Romance Languages (Italian), and a friend of Arthur Upson. She was also the donor of the Arthur Upson room, Walter Library, University of Minnesota.

Ruth Shepard Phelps, B.L. (1899) Smith College, M.A. (1910) Columbia University, Ph.D. (1924) University of Chicago. Associate professor of romance languages at the University of Minnesota.

Ruth Shepard Phelps was born in Aurora, Illinois on 18 June 1876. She earned her B.A. in 1899 from Smith College, M.A. in 1910 from Columbia University, and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1924. She was appointed as instructor of romance languages at the University of Minnesota in 1910; promoted to assistant professor (1916), associate professor (1919), and professor (1926). Dr. Phelps resigned from the University on 1 January 1929 in preparation of her upcoming marriage to Paul Morand on 9 January 1929, and her subsequent move to Paris, France. Shortly after her retirement, the Regents of the University created for her the position of "Honorary Curator of Italian for the University Library."

Upon Phelps' return to Minneapolis from Smith College, she joined the Peripatetics Club, a group of young people interested in literature and poetry. Other members included Joseph Warren Beach, Arthur Upson, George Norton Northrop, and Richard Burton. In 1925, Ruth Phelps was the donor of the Arthur Upson room located in Walter Library, a fact which, at her request, was not publicized until after her death.

Phelps was a contributor to the Bellman, which published many of her poems and essays between 1908 and 1919. In 1910 Skies Italian, a volume of poems she edited, was published in London. In 1924, Italian Silhouettes, a collection of her own essays on contemporary Italian authors appeared. She edited Arthur Upson's Lyrics and Sonnets and Sonnets and Songs, which were published in 1909 and 1911. After her marriage to Paul Morand, she collaborated with him on works in both prose and verse which were published in Paris under the pseudonym Phelps-Morand. Ruth Shepard Phelps died in Paris on 12 July 1949, the result of an automobile accident.