Harriet Monroe

Harriet Monroe (1860–1936) was an American poet, editor, critic, and patron of the arts who founded and edited Poetry: A Magazine of Verse from 1912 until her death, playing a pivotal role in the early 20th-century poetry renaissance through her 'Open Door' policy that championed innovative voices like Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot. Born in Chicago to a lawyer father, she published her first poetry collection, Valeria and Other Poems, in 1891, worked as an art critic for the Chicago Tribune, and wrote the 'Columbian Ode' for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Her editorial legacy professionalized poetry by prioritizing new work and fair payment to poets.