Poet, Editor, Anarchist: Lola Ridge’s New York Networks

Abstract

ABSTRACT Irish-born poet, Lola Ridge (1873–1941), was a dynamic figure in New York literary and anarchist circles of the early twentieth century. A talented poet, she invested time and energy in her creative work, from poems depicting life in the Lower East Side, published as The Ghetto and Other Poems (1918) to the late, ambitious Dance of Fire (1935). Ridge was for a time involved in the New York Ferrer Center and associated Modern School and, from this experience, developed a reputation as a committed, if sometimes controversial, arts organiser and magazine editor. The networks she established when working at the Ferrer Center and during her time with the magazines Others (1918–19) and Broom (1922–23) were indicative of the experimental energies of the New York literary scene and of Ridge's place within it. This article explores these connections and their role in Ridge's evolving artistic life.