Madeline Mason-Manheim

Madeline Mason-Manheim (also known by the pseudonym Tyler Mason)[1] (1908-1990) was an American poet and translator.[2] Her work was also published under the names Madeline Mason and Tyler Mason.[3][4][5] She was married to the outsider artist and novelist Malcolm McKesson.

Early life

Mason-Manheim was born into a socially prominent family[6] in New York on January 24, 1908 (though some sources list her year of birth as 1902 or 1905).

Career and social life

Her first collection of poetry, Hill Fragments, was published in 1925, and featured an introduction from Arthur Symons, as well as illustrations by Kahlil Gibran.[7] She continued her association with Gibran by translating his work The Prophet into French; this translation was published in 1926.[3]

In the 1930s, Mason-Manheim was a regular in the "Social" pages of the New York Times[8][9][10]

In 1942, Mason-Manheim married Malcolm McKesson, whom she had met at a debutante ball. McKesson claimed that the union was never consummated; however, the pair remained married until Mason-Manheim's death in 1990.[11]

Mason-Manheim wrote The Cage of Years, which was published in 1949. The work featured illustrations by Theodore Conrath and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[12]

Mason-Manheim devised the "Mason sonnet" in 1953. This poetic form is composed of fourteen lines, divided into an octave and a sestet, with the pivot coming after the octave. The lines are in iambic pentameter, with rhyme scheme ABCABCBC DBADDA.[13]

Death and legacy

Mason-Manheim's papers are held by the Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin.[5]

Works

  • Mason-Manheim, Madeline. Hill Fragments. London: Cecil Palmer (1925).
  • Mason, Tyler and Edward M. House. Riding for Texas. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock (1936).
  • Mason, Madeline. The Cage of Years. New York: The Bond Wheelright Company (1949).

Further reading

References

  1. ^ Alexander, Bob; Brice, Donaly E. (15 July 2017). Texas Rangers: Lives, Legend, and Legacy. University of North Texas Press. ISBN 978-1-57441-691-6. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  2. ^ "Mason, Madeline 1908-1990". Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  3. ^ a b Congress, The Library of. "LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies (Library of Congress)". id.loc.gov.
  4. ^ "The Prophet's Earliest European Translations: German (1925) and French (1926)". www.kahlilgibran.com.
  5. ^ a b "Madeline Mason Papers, 1867-1992". Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  6. ^ "Malcolm McKesson, 1909-1999". Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  7. ^ "Hill Fragments". Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  8. ^ "HONORS LADY BENN AND HER DAUGHTER". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  9. ^ "HONORS GENERAL HALLER". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  10. ^ "STANISLAW PATEK HONORED AT PARTY". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  11. ^ Isaacs, Deanna (29 May 1997). "Art People: Malcolm McKesson's passionate repression". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  12. ^ "Object Details: The Cage of Years". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  13. ^ Eberhart, Lawrence. "Mason Sonnet – Every Sonnet".