Edith Wilson
Poems by First Ladies: The First-Ever Anthology includes a humorous limerick poem by Edith Wilson. After I learned that the Edith Bolling Galt Wilson Papers contain additional poems, I pilgrimaged to the Library of Congress’s Manuscript Division. I found no shortage of poems, but despite my sleuthing, I could not confidently conclude that Edith authored any of them.
The series description for the Papers lists “poems” in Boxes 57–61 and 66–71. There is no dedicated, organized folder with poetry. Some poems were explicitly attributed to well-known poets or Edith’s sister, Bertha Bolling. Some unsigned poems were mixed in with Bertha’s and were in distinct handwriting. Other unsigned poems appeared in different boxes and folders. Some have contextual clues that are relevant to Edith, and some don’t. Some are handwritten, and some are typed. I left the Manuscript Division with photos of a dozen and a half poems that Edith might have written.
For each of the eighteen poems, I searched for excerpts via Google, Google Books, and HathiTrust. I determined that seven had been written by other authors. This left me with eleven unattributed poems.
I reached out to Peggy Dillard, the librarian and archivist at the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library. She kindly checked with her team. Dillard concluded, “I’ve not been able to find any confirmation that Edith Wilson was a prolific writer of poetry. In looking at the attachments you sent, I recognize her handwriting for sure. But it’s hard to say if she copied these as favorites or created them.”
Did Edith write any of the unattributed poems? I don’t know! Below are photos of some of the eleven poems that I did not rule out. They are not included in Poems by First Ladies.
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