Words Property of the People

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Genevieve Taggard was a major nationally renowned poet of the early twentieth century. Critics hailed her debut book as the work of a distinguished poet. Magazines published her work as representative of the new "Modern Woman" of the post-suffrage Twenties. Aaron Copland set her poetry to music for performances at Carnegie Hall and on the radio. Major publishers issues multiple editions of her books. Then, witnessing the devastation of the Thirties' Great Depression, she began to write poetry that witnessed the scenes she saw around her. That precipitated her fall from grace. Critics and publishers turned against her. Influential anthologists refused to republish her poetry. The FBI opened a file on her. The literary establishment buried her and forgot her. It was if she had never lived and never written. This book details how cultural memory is created and maintained and how politics turned a major poet into a "minor" poet.