Louise Kidder Sparrow

Born in Malden, Massachusetts, Sparrow was a graduate of Emerson College,[1] and began her artistic instruction in Europe at age 16.[2] Sparrow's father — Wellington Parker Kidder, the inventor of the noiseless typewriter — printed her first book of poetry, entitled Lyrics and Translations, in 1904. The volume won Sparrow admittance into The Boston Authors Club.[2]

Sparrow moved to Washington, D.C. around 1909 with her husband. There, she engaged in further studies in sculpture, working with Henry Kirke Bush-Brown, Edmund C. Messer, and Ulric Stonewall Jackson Dunbar. Primarily a sculptor of portrait busts, she exhibited in numerous local, national, and international exhibits. She was a member of the Society of Washington Artists and the American Artists's Professional League. Her work received a variety of honors during her career including a diploma of honor from the Paris Colonial Exposition in 1931 and a bronze medal from the 1930 exhibition of the Society of Washington Artists.[3] Her plaster bust of Theodore E. Burton is currently in the collection of the United States Capitol;[4] she is also represented in the collections of the Western Reserve Historical Society, the United States Military Academy, the United States Naval Observatory, the Montana State Capitol, and Howard University.[3] Her involvement in a serious car crash in 1934 ended her sculpture career.[2]

In the late 1920s or early-to-mid-1930s, Sparrow was hired as Editor of Translations for Star-Dust, A Journal of Poetry.[2] She also wrote over a dozen volumes of verse, the last titled Midnight Meditation and completed shortly before her death.

In 1909, Sparrow married[2] Captain Herbert G. Sparrow of the United States Navy. He died in 1924 when his ship, the USS Tacoma (CL-20), ran aground in Mexico; she later wrote the book The Last Cruise about the incident. In 1910, the couple's son, Herbert G. Sparrow, was born. The younger Herbert later became a major general in the United States Army. Louise Sparrow died in 1979 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center after a myocardial infarction.[1] She is buried with her husband at Arlington National Cemetery.[5]

Sparrow's papers are held at the Harvard University Libraries and National Museum of Women in the Arts. The latter institution holds a variety of Sparrow's sculpting tools.

Works of Poetry

• Lyrics and Translations (privately printed, 1904)[2]
• The Last Cruise (Stratford Co., 1926)
• My World Constitution (1938)
• Narrative Poems: from Journal in Verse (Branden Press, 1970)
• A Handful of Lyrics: from Journal in Verse (Thom Henricks Associates, 1970)
• Violets and Mimosa: from Journal in Verse (Thom Henricks Associates, 1971)
• Epic of the Sea: A Drama of Navy Life (1971)
• Spiced Herbs and Rose Petals from the Old Blue Jar (Thom Henricks Associates, 1971)
• Tales Retold at Twilight (1972)
• Basket of Pansies (1974)
• The Gentle Hours of Fresh Delights (Transcripts, 1976)
• The Steed of Bengaray (J&C Transcripts, 1976)
• Virginia Byways (n.d.)
• Midnight Meditation (n.d.)

Translations

• Tankas by Nico D. Horiguchi (Erskine MacDonald, 1925)
• Air Temple by Daigaku Horiguchi (Abrams Press, 1972)
• The Might of Wings: Poets of Many Lands (n.d.)

• Louise Kidder Sparrow Papers, 1900-1986 at National Museum of Women in the Arts
• Papers of Louise Kidder Sparrow, 1839-1964 at Harvard University Libraries
• Behind the Scenes: A Few Reminiscences of a Washington Sculptor, an Archival Manuscript at the Library of Congress