Helen A. Clarke

Helen Archibald Clarke (November 13, 1860 – February 8, 1926) was an American literary critic, book editor, composer and lyricist, and the co-founder of the journal Poet Lore. She was influential in shaping the American literary taste of her day through her work on Poet Lore, through her work co-editing the complete works of the British poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and through her books on writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Early life and education

Helen Archibald Clarke was born in 1860 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Jane Maria Searle and Hugh Archibald Clarke. Her father was a composer and music professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and Clarke showed early aptitude for music herself. At the time, the university did not admit women, but Clarke attended for two years as a special student, earning a certificate in music in 1883.

In the early 1880s, Clarke submitted an article on music in the work of William Shakespeare to the journal Shakespeariana, then under the editorship of Charlotte Endymion Porter (1857–1942). Clarke and Porter became life partners and collaborated on a number of literary projects during the remainder of Clarke's life.

Poet Lore

In 1889, Clarke and Porter founded the quarterly journal Poet Lore in Philadelphia, later moving it to Boston. Its stated aim was to champion the "comparative study of literature" and the work of Shakespeare and Robert Browning. After the first few years, the journal's focus on writing about Shakespeare and Browning shifted to encompass a broader view of world literature. In keeping with its mission, the magazine published few American writers but many from around the world, often in translation. Poet Lore helped introduce American readers to the work of such early modern writers as Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Selma Lagerlöf, Gerhart Hauptmann, Maxim Gorky, Maurice Maeterlinck, Arthur Schnitzler, and Rabindranath Tagore.