Evans, Abbie (1882 - 1983)

Genre: Poetry

Abbie Evans, noted poet of the natural world, was born in Bristol, Maine and moved to Camden as a teenager. When she was 18, she experienced a serious illness that affected her eyesight and she was unable to read or write for ten years. She spent much of her time observing the natural world as she wandered through the woods and fields in the town. Her frequent companion was Edna St. Vincent Millay whom Evans met when she was Millay's Sunday school teacher.

When Evans was 28, she enrolled at Radcliffe College where she earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees. She taught English after graduation and then was a Red Cross volunteer during World War I. After the war she was a social worker and then returned to the teaching profession. Although she lived in Philadelphia, she spent her summer vacations in Maine.

Bowdoin College recognized Evans' literary contribution when it granted her an honorary degree in 1961. Three years later the Library of Congress included her in its series Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature. On the recording, titled Abbie Huston Evans Reading Her Poems in the Recording Laboratory, Jan. 22, 1964. Evans reads poems from her first three collections.

In 1982, the year of Evans' 100th birthday, Down East honored Evans by publishing a feature story on her in the February issue. Mary C. Jane wrote the article titled Nourished on the Mountain's flinty bread

Selected Bibliography

  • Outcrop 1928, forward by Edna St. Vincent Millay
  • Bright North (1938)
  • Fact of Crystal (1961)
  • Collected Poems (1970 published in honor of her 90th birthday.

Selected Resources