Sara Haardt
BornSara Powell Haardt
(1898-03-01)March 1, 1898
Montgomery, Alabama, US
DiedMay 31, 1935(1935-05-31) (aged 37)
Baltimore, Maryland, US
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • professor
  • writer
Alma materGoucher College
SpouseH. L. Mencken (m. 1930)

Sara Powell Haardt (March 1, 1898 – May 31, 1935) was an American author and professor of English literature. Though she died at the age of 37 of meningitis, she produced a considerable body of work including newspaper reviews, articles, essays, a novel The Making of a Lady, several screenplays and over 50 short stories.[1] She is central to John Barton Wolgamot's notorious book-length poem, In Sara Mencken, Christ and Beethoven there were men and women (1944), recorded by the composer Robert Ashley.[2]

Early life and education

Sara Powell Haardt was born March 1, 1898, to Venetia (Hall) Haardt and German American John Anton Haardt in Montgomery, Alabama, the eldest of five children. She attended the Margaret Booth School. In 1920, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. While still an undergraduate at Goucher, she had become a professional writer, writing for literary reviews and popular periodicals.

Career

She was immediately hired to teach at Goucher College in the English Department upon graduation.[3]

She became the head of the Alabama branch of the National Woman's Party, where she led the unsuccessful fight to have the Alabama Legislature ratify the 19th Amendment.[4][5]

Haardt's childhood friend, Alabama author Sara Mayfield wrote extensively about Haardt's marriage to H. L. Mencken in her 1968 book The Constant Circle: H.L. Menken and His Friends.[6] Despite Menken's reputation for being "a rock-ribbed bachelor"[7] and his criticism of suffragettes,[8] they married in a small Episcopal ceremony in Baltimore on August 27, 1930.[9]

Death

She died in 1935 from meningitis.[10] Her death was the result of complications of tuberculosis, from which she had suffered for many years.[11]

Recognition

Her short story "Absolutely Perfect" won her a nomination for the O. Henry Prize in 1933.[12]

References

  1. ↑ "Sara Haardt". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Alabama Humanities Alliance. Retrieved December 2, 2023.
  2. ↑ Waldrop, Keith. "JOHN BARTON WOLGAMOT" (PDF). Retrieved March 11, 2018.
  3. ↑ Henley, Ann. "Sara Haardt". Encyclopedia of Alabama. The Encyclopedia of Alabama TM. Retrieved April 11, 2012.
  4. ↑ "Alabamina: Literary Figures". Retrieved April 11, 2012.
  5. ↑ Alabama rejected the Nineteenth Amendment on September 22, 1919. In a symbolic gesture, Alabama later ratified the amendment on September 8, 1953.
  6. ↑ Mayfield, Sara (1968). The Constant Circle: H.L. Menken and His Friends. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama. ISBN 9780817350635. Retrieved December 2, 2023.
  7. ↑ Mayfield, Sara (1968). The Constant Circle: H.L. Menken and His Friends. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama. p. 3. ISBN 9780817350635. Retrieved December 2, 2023.
  8. ↑ Marino, Patricia (May 27, 2011). "Mencken's "Mixed Martial Arts" For And Against Women". The Kramer is Now. Retrieved April 11, 2012.
  9. ↑ Mayfield, Sara (1968). The Constant Circle: H.L. Menken and His Friends. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama. p. 168-169. ISBN 9780817350635. Retrieved December 2, 2023.
  10. ↑ "Literary Figures: Sally Haardt", The Real South: Famous People, AL
  11. ↑ Bode, Carl (January 1, 1969). Mencken. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 0809303760.
  12. ↑ "Haardt, Sara". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Retrieved September 26, 2023.

Sources

  • Henley, Ann (1999). Southern Souvenirs: Short Stories and Essays by Sara Haardt. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
  • Henley, Ann (1994). "Sara Haardt and 'the Sweet, Flowering South". Alabama Heritage (34): 1–21.
  • Henley, Ann (2006). "The Flower of the Sahara". Menckeniana: A Quarterly Review (Spring).
  • Hobson, Fred (1994). Mencken: A Biography. New York: Random House. ISBN 9780394563299.
  • Mayfield, Sara (1968). The Constant Circle: H. L. Mencken and His Friends. New York: Delacorte P.
  • Mencken, H. L. (1936). Southern Album. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Company.
  • Rodgers, Marion Elizabeth (1987). Mencken and Sara: A Life in Letters. New York: McGraw-Hill.
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