Jessie B. Rittenhouse

Jessie Belle Rittenhouse was born in Mount Morris, New York, and graduated from Genesee Wesleyan Seminary. A well-known critic, poet, and lecturer in the early decades of the 20th century, she was an advocate for modern poetry. Rittenhouse edited many anthologies that brought contemporary poets such as Robert Frost, Sara Teasdale, and Edna St. Vincent Millay to a wide readership, including The Younger American Poets (1904), The Little Book of Modern American Verse (1913), The Little Book of American Poets (1915), The Second Book of Modern Verse (1919), The Little Book of Modern British Verse (1924), and The Third Book of Modern Verse (1927). In 1910, she helped found the Poetry Society of America and served as its secretary for ten years.

Rittenhouse wrote four books of poetry and an autobiography, My House of Life (1934). In 1924, she moved to Winter Park, Florida, with her husband, the poet Clinton Scollard. There, she founded the Poetry Society of Florida to encourage younger poets. From the 1920s on, Rittenhouse was involved with Rollins College, teaching courses on modern poetry and serving as poetry consultant. Rollins awarded her an honorary doctor of literature degree in 1928.