Read by Ghizela Rowe (Unabridged: 55mins)

Sara Trevor Teasdale was born on 8th August, 1884 in St Louis, Missouri.  A child of poor health she was 14 years old when she was well enough to begin school.  Her first poetry publication was in 1907 with her second book in 1911.

She was courted by Vachel Lindsay, a great poet but one who thought he could not provide a suitable standard of living so Sara married Ernst Filsinger and the couple moved to New York City.   In 1917 she released the poetry collection Love Songs and the following year it won three awards: the Columbia University Poetry Society prize, the 1918 Pulitzer Prize for poetry and the annual prize of the Poetry Society of America.

By 1929 Sara was deeply unhappy and divorced but remained in New York where she soon resumed her friendship with Vachel Lindsay, who was by this time married with children.   In 1931 Vachel Lindsay committed suicide. Two years later Sara too was dead - overdosing on sleeping pills. She is buried in the Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.

Sara Teasdale Biography