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Minna Irving

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Minna Irving
A young white woman with dark hair, wearing a light-colored gown
Minna Irving, from an 1889 publication
Born
Minnie Odell

(1864-05-17)May 17, 1864
Tarrytown, New York, U.S.
DiedJuly 4, 1940(1940-07-04) (aged 76)
Wyckoff, New Jersey, U.S.
Other namesMinna Michener, Aurelia Maxwell Michener, Mrs. Irving Hasbrouck De Lamater
OccupationWriter

Minna Irving (May 17, 1864 – July 4, 1940), born Minnie Odell, was an American writer and poet based in Tarrytown, New York. She wrote patriotic poetry through two wars, and a science fiction story published in 1929.

Early life

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Minnie Odell was born in Tarrytown, the daughter of William Roamer Odell and Mary Ann Van Tassel Odell. She began writing poetry in childhood, and studied music.[1]

Career

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Irving wrote dozens of poems that were published in popular and literary magazines including Century,[1] Woman's Home Companion,[1] The Smart Set, Leslie's Weekly,[2] Munsey's, and Ainslee's.[3] She also published a collection of poetry, Songs of a Haunted Heart (1888). She wrote Christmas-themed poems,[4][5] and during the Spanish–American War and World War I, she published poems about the war efforts. "I love camps and soldier life. Indeed I am more interested in the rough side of life," she explained in 1902. "I know many sea captains and naval men and I learn things from them. I love the sea."[1]

Some of Irving's poems appeared in the Journal of Education,[6][7][8] and The Phrenological Journal.[9] and she wrote an essay about recreational driving for Suburban Life.[10]

Irving also wrote stories and poems with a supernatural or horror aspect,[11] and at least one science fiction story, "The Moon Woman" (1929).[12] Pulp magazines where her work appeared included Weird Tales, Amazing Stories,[13] All-Story Magazine, and Argosy. Several of her poems appeared in The Haunted Hour (1920), an anthology of spooky poems, many of them by women, compiled by Margaret Widdemer.[14]

Irving wrote verses that appeared on the memorial for Quentin Roosevelt in France. In 1929, she was one of ten American poets awarded a cash prize, as finalists in a contest to write a new national anthem.[15][16] American composer Anna Ware Poole used Irving’s text in her song “Salvation Mary.”[17]

Irving's errors caught

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A 1901 Massachusetts newspaper took Irving to task for some impossibilities in her description of a British yacht.[18] In 1905, an Oregon newspaper published a mocking poem about Irving, after she mis-rhymed "Willamette" and "beset" in a published verse.[19] In 1915, a Honolulu paper caught her in another error, when it explained that pineapples do not grow on pine trees, as she suggested in a poem.[20]

Personal life

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Irving was portrayed as litigious and attention-seeking in media accounts.[21] "Don't mention the name of Minna Irving to me again," cautioned the editor of the Tarrytown Argus in 1894.[22] "If there is anything for which Minna's soul always yearns, it is a sensation," reported a newspaper story in 1888 and 1889. "She generally manages to scare up a sensation of some kind about twice a year."[23][24] In 1917, she wrote a first-person poem, in which the speaker wants to kiss Gladys, a woman who was wearing gardening overalls and a Panama hat, but instead kisses Gladys's brother, in a case of mistaken identity.[25]

Irving was engaged to Palmer B. Wells in 1885,[26] but later sued him for harassing and defaming her,[27] and he served a jail sentence when the conflict escalated.[28] She was briefly married to Irving Hasbrouck De Lamater in 1890,[29] before they separated and eventually divorced.[30][31] She married her second husband, Harry H. Michener, in 1911.[32] She died in 1940, at the age of 76, at a sanitarium in Wyckoff, New Jersey.[33]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 Crowell, Bertha C. (1902-10-19). "Miss Minna Irving". The Kansas City Star. p. 23. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ↑ "Minna Irving, "King Gasoline," Leslie's Weekly, August 24, 1916". Energy History, Yale University. Archived from the original on 2025-06-21. Retrieved 2025-10-10.
  3. ↑ "Minna Irving". The General Fiction Magazine Index. Archived from the original on 2025-07-19. Retrieved 2025-10-10.
  4. ↑ Irving, Minna (1929-12-19). "The Christmas Angel and Christmas Land". Blue Valley Journal. p. 7. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ Irving, Minna (1922-12-14). "Christmas Land and The Nativity". Windsor Beacon. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ Irving, Minna (August 1923). "Our Lost Leader". Journal of Education. 98 (6): 147–147. doi:10.1177/002205742309800605. ISSN 0022-0574.
  7. ↑ Irving, Minna (July 1920). "To America". Journal of Education. 92 (1): 12–12. doi:10.1177/002205742009200107. ISSN 0022-0574.
  8. ↑ Irving, Minna (June 1924). "Legend of the Moonflower". Journal of Education. 99 (23): 628–628. doi:10.1177/002205742409902308. ISSN 0022-0574.
  9. ↑ Irving, Minna. "The Winter Brook" The Phrenological Journal and Science of Health 107, no. 1 (1899): 23.
  10. ↑ Irving, Minna. "My lady of the car: Motoring as a recreation for women—A personal experience and a bit of romance." Suburban Life 9, no. 5 (1909): 233-234.
  11. ↑ "'The Witch of Neperan' Now on Display at the Yonkers Museum". The Herald Statesman. 1925-02-18. p. 9. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ Donawerth, Jane L. "Science Fiction by Women in the Early Pulps, 1926-1930" in Utopian and Science Fiction by Women: Worlds of Difference, Carol A. Kolmerten and Jane Donawerth, eds. (Syracuse University Press 1994): 137.
  13. ↑ Irving, Minna (November 1929). "The Moon Woman: A Tale of the Future". Amazing Stories. 4 (8): 746–754 – via Internet Archive.
  14. ↑ Widdemer, Margaret. The Haunted Hour: An Anthology (1920). Harcourt, Brace and Howe. ISBN 978-1-4219-6903-9.
  15. ↑ "Winners in Song Contest are Named; Ten American Poets Are Awarded $1000". The Houston Chronicle. 1929-01-13. p. 36. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Three Magazine Poets Among Ten Anthem Prize Winners". Springfield Evening Union. 1929-01-14. p. 7. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ "Salvation Mary : a song for our boys who went to France". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2026-07-26.
  18. ↑ "Minna Irving's Blunders". The Evening Herald. 1901-08-28. p. 4. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ Love, Robertus (1905-06-28). "Wil-LAM-ette". The Oregonian. p. 8. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ↑ "Poet Believes Fruit is Found 'High in Pines'". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. 1915-11-13. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ↑ "She Can't Write Poetry; Dogs Howl Under Miss Minna Irving's Window". New York Herald. 1891-05-30. p. 9. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ↑ "Minna Irving Upholds History; Her Great-great-grandfather Not a Revolutionary Soldier, She Says". New York Herald. 1894-10-09. p. 6. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ↑ "Irving Vs. Wells; A Poetess and Her Suit Against a Former Friend". The Montana Record-Herald. 1888-12-27. p. 7. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ↑ "Irving vs. Wells; A Poetess and Her Suit Against a Former Friend". The Victoria Daily Times. 1889-05-17. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ↑ "Minna and Her Little Mistake". Modesto Morning Herald. 1917-07-15. p. 4. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ↑ "Personalisms". The Yonkers Gazette. 1885-10-31. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ↑ "A Poet of Passion's Suit; The Sweet Singer of Sleepy Hollow Out With Mr. Wells". New York Herald. 1888-12-06. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. ↑ "Minna Irving, the Poetess; Married Over Again, Because the First Marriage was on Friday". The Savannah Morning News. 1890-07-14. p. 8. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  29. ↑ "Minna Irving, the Poetess; Married Over Again, Because the First Marriage was on Friday". The Savannah Morning News. 1890-07-14. p. 8. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  30. ↑ "Minna Wants a Divorce". The Yonkers Gazette. 1890-10-25. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  31. ↑ "Minna Irving Tires of Marriage". Buffalo Courier Express. 1892-02-20. p. 5. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  32. ↑ "Obituary: Mrs. Harry Michener". The News. 1940-07-24. p. 32. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  33. ↑ "Minna Irving Dead; Tarrytown Author". The Herald Statesman. 1940-07-24. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-10-10 – via Newspapers.com.
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