Agnes Lee

Agnes Lee (née Martha Agnes Rand; 1862–1939) was an American poet and translator.

This article is about the American poet. For the daughter of Robert E. Lee, see Eleanor Agnes Lee.

Agnes Lee
Photo of Lee taken by her first husband, Francis Watts Lee
Born
Martha Agnes Rand

(1862-03-06)March 6, 1862
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
DiedJuly 23, 1939(1939-07-23) (aged 77)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Resting placeGraceland Cemetery
Spouses
  • Francis Watts Lee
  • Otto Freer
Children1
Parent(s)William H. Rand
Harriet H. Robinson

Biography

Lee was born Martha Agnes Rand in Chicago on March 6, 1862.[1][lower-alpha 1] She was the second daughter of William H. Rand, an American printer and publisher who co-founded the Rand McNally Company.[2][3] She was educated at a boarding school in Vevey, Switzerland.[2]

Lee wrote a collection of children's verse in 1898 titled The Round Rabbit.[2] Her debut poetry collection, The Legend of a Thought, was published in 1889.[2] She wrote books of poetry including The Border of the Lake in 1910, The Sharing in 1914, Faces and Open Doors in 1922, and New Lyrics and a Few Old Ones in 1931.[2][4] She translated Théophile Gautier's Enamels and Cameos and Other Poems in 1903.[2] In 1926, Lee received the guarantor's prize from Poetry Magazine.[2]

Lee's grave at Graceland Cemetery

In 1890 she married Francis Watts Lee, a photographer, and moved to Boston.[2] They had a daughter. In 1911 she married Otto Freer, a surgeon.[2] Her second husband died in 1932.

Lee died from pneumonia on July 23, 1939, at her home, 81 East Elm Street, in Chicago.[2] She was buried at Graceland Cemetery.[2][5] A collection of letters exchanged between her and poet Edgar Lee Masters is archived in the Newberry Library in Chicago.[2][6][7]

Notes
  1. Some sources give her birth year as 1868.[2] Her gravestone shows March 24, 1862.

References
  1. Lord, Charles Edward (1913). The Ancestors and Descendants of Lieutenant Tobias Lord. p. 152. Retrieved February 5, 2023 – via Google Books.
  2. Foundation, Poetry (May 25, 2021). "Agnes Lee". Poetry Foundation.
  3. "queerplaces - Agnes Lee". www.elisarolle.com. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
  4. Monroe, Harriet (1932). "Agnes Lee". Poetry. 39 (6): 324–328. JSTOR 20578451 – via JSTOR.
  5. "Martha A. Freer, Poet and Widow of Surgeon, Dies". Chicago Tribune. July 24, 1939. p. 16. Retrieved February 5, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Agnes Lee-Edgar Lee Masters Papers, 1919-1933". Explore Chicago Collections.
  7. "Agnes Lee-Edgar Lee Masters Papers, 1919–1933". mms.newberry.org. Archived from the original on July 14, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
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