{{Short description|American poet (1894–1961)}}
{{Infobox person | name = Eda Lou Walton | image = EdaLouWalton1919.png | alt = A young woman with wavy dark hair, in an oval frame | caption = Eda Lou Walton, from the 1919 yearbook of the University of California, Berkeley | other_names = | birth_name = | birth_date = January 19, 1894 | birth_place = Deming, New Mexico, US | death_date = December 8, 1961 (aged 67) | death_place = Alameda County, California, US | occupation = {{hlist|Poet|critic|college professor}} | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = | spouse(s) = | partner = Henry Roth (1930s) | father = William B. Walton | relatives = }}
'''Eda Lou Walton''' (January 19, 1894 – December 8, 1961) was an American poet and college professor. In addition to her original poetry, she studied and "recreated" traditional songs and chants of the Navajo and Blackfoot cultures.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Walton |first=Eda Lou |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MXU1AAAAIAAJ |title=Dawn Boy: Blackfoot and Navajo Songs |date=1926 |publisher=E.P. Dutton & Company |language=en}}</ref>
== Early life and education == Walton was born in Deming, New Mexico and raised in Silver City, New Mexico, the daughter of William Bell Walton and Leoline Ashenfelter Walton.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Hutchison |first=Percy |date=1931-11-17 |title=Eda Lou Walton's New Book of Verse |pages=4 |work=The Fresno Morning Republican |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120235009/eda-lou-waltons-new-book-of/ |access-date=2023-03-05 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1931-10-29 |title=Eda Lou Walton Famous Authoress |pages=1 |work=The Deming Headlight |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120235596/eda-lou-walton-famous-authoress/ |access-date=2023-03-05 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Her father was a newspaper editor and member of New Mexico's territorial legislature and its first State Senate.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1939-04-15 |title=Prominent Man Dies |pages=1 |work=The Gallup Independent |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120236808/prominent-man-dies/ |access-date=2023-03-05 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> She studied with poet Witter Bynner and won the Emily Chamberlain Cook Prize while she was a student at the University of California, Berkeley. She earned a Ph.D. in English and anthropology at Berkeley,<ref name=":3" /> with the dissertation "Navajo Traditional Poetry, Its Content and Form."<ref name=":1">Greenhood, David. [https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=4070&context=nmq "Eda Lou Walton's Use of Her Native Scene"] ''New Mexico Quarterly'' 33(3) (1963): 253- 265.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Walton |first=Eda Lou |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xv9IAQAAMAAJ |title=Navaho Traditional Poetry: Its Form and Content |date=1920 |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |language=en}}</ref>
== Career == Walton was a member of the faculty at New York University (NYU), and was close to fellow poets Léonie Adams, Louise Bogan, and Genevieve Taggard.<ref name=":1" /> She was also a mentor (and lover) of writer Henry Roth,<ref name=":2">{{Cite magazine |last=Rosen |first=Jonathan |date=2005-07-25 |title=Writer, Interrupted: The Resurrection of Henry Roth |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/08/01/writer-interrupted |access-date=2023-03-05 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Wald |first=Alan M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EJ7lFKljctAC&dq=Eda+Lou+Walton&pg=PA150 |title=Trinity of Passion: The Literary Left and the Antifascist Crusade |date=2011-04-01 |publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-8236-8 |pages=150 |language=en}}</ref> and was the acknowledged real-life model for one of the main characters in his novel ''Call It Sleep'' (1934), which he dedicated to her.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wirth-Nesher |first=Hana |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rkU-L_Npi_MC&dq=Eda+Lou+Walton&pg=PA162 |title=New Essays on Call It Sleep |date=1996-06-13 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-45656-2 |pages=162, 181 |language=en}}</ref>
Walton published several books of her own poetry,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Crane |first=Milton |date=1953-02-01 |title=Elegies and Celebrations; So Many Daughters. By Eda Lou Walton (review) |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1953/02/01/archives/elegies-and-celebrations-so-many-daughters-by-eda-lou-walton-62-pp.html |access-date=2023-03-05 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name=":3"/> and ''Dawn Boy'' (1926), the contents of which she explained as "not literal, not even free, translations of Indian texts, but rather interpretations of Indian poetic material."<ref name=":0" /> Her "radical connections" and "subversive acts", including her Communist Party membership, were discussed by the Subversive Activities Control Board in the 1950s, and nearly cost her job at NYU. She later taught in brief stints at Howard University and other schools.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Filreis |first=Alan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QvWZ56DGddUC&dq=Eda+Lou+Walton&pg=PA143 |title=Counter-revolution of the Word: The Conservative Attack on Modern Poetry, 1945-1960 |date=2012-09-01 |publisher=UNC Press Books |isbn=978-1-4696-0663-7 |pages=142–144 |language=en}}</ref>
== Publications ==
* ''Emily Chamberlain Cook Prize Poems'' (1919, seven poems)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walton |first=Eda Lou |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EMo6AQAAIAAJ |title=Poems |date=1919 |publisher=University of California Press |language=en}}</ref> * "Hill Songs" (1920, six poems)<ref>Walton, Eda Lou, [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?volume=16&issue=2&page=29 "Hill Songs"], ''Poetry'' (May 1920): 86-89.</ref> * "Beyond Sorrow" (1921, seven poems)<ref>Walton, Eda Lou. [https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:464650/PDF/ "Beyond Sorrow"] ''Poetry'' (August 1921): 260-263.</ref> * "Navaho Poetry, An Interpretation" (1922, article)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Walton |first=Eda Lou |date=1922 |title=Navaho Poetry: An Interpretation |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43465431 |journal=Texas Review |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=198–210 |jstor=43465431 |issn=2380-5382}}</ref> * "Navaho Verse Rhythms" (1924, article)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Walton |first=Eda Lou |date=1924 |title=Navaho Verse Rhythms |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20574528 |journal=Poetry |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=40–44 |jstor=20574528 |issn=0032-2032}}</ref> * "American Indian Poetry" (1925, article, with T. T. Waterman)<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Walton |first1=Eda Lou |last2=Waterman |first2=T. T. |date=January–March 1925 |title=American Indian Poetry |journal=American Anthropologist |language=en |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=25–52 |doi=10.1525/aa.1925.27.1.02a00030 |issn=0002-7294|doi-access=free }}</ref> * "Tunes in the Dark" (1925, five poems)<ref>Walton, Eda Lou. [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?volume=27&issue=3&page=26 "Tunes in the Dark"] ''Poetry'' (December 1925): 142-146.</ref> * ''Dawn Boy: Blackfoot and Navajo Songs'' (1926, traditional songs "recreated" by Walton)<ref name=":0" /> * ''The City Day: An Anthology of Recent American Poetry'' (1929)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walton |first=Eda Lou |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y1dKAAAAIAAJ |title=The City Day: An Anthology of Recent American Poetry |date=1929 |publisher=Ronald Press |language=en}}</ref> * "Navajo Song Patterning" (1930, article)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Walton |first=Eda Lou |date=1930 |title=Navajo Song Patterning |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/535167 |journal=The Journal of American Folklore |volume=43 |issue=167 |pages=105–118 |doi=10.2307/535167 |jstor=535167 |issn=0021-8715|url-access=subscription }}</ref> * "Intolerable Towers" (1930, article)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Walton |first=Eda Lou |date=1930 |title=Intolerable Towers |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/803635 |journal=The English Journal |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=267–281 |doi=10.2307/803635 |jstor=803635 |issn=0013-8274|url-access=subscription }}</ref> * ''Jane Matthew and Other Poems'' (1931, poetry collection)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walton |first=Eda Lou |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a8cEAQAAIAAJ |title=Jane Matthew and Other Poems |date=1931 |publisher=Brewer, Warren & Putnam |language=en}}</ref> * "Death in the Desert" (1933, article) * ''Turquoise Boy and White Shell Girl'' (1933, children's book)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walton |first=Eda Lou |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YDhxAAAAIAAJ |title=Turquoise Boy and White Shell Girl |date=1933 |publisher=Crowell |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Case |first=Elizabeth N. |date=1933-10-15 |title=The World of Fiction and Fancy |pages=54 |work=Hartford Courant |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120236034/the-world-of-fiction-and/ |access-date=2023-03-05 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> * ''This Generation: A Selection of British and American Literature from 1914 to the present'' (1939, anthology, edited with George Kumler Anderson)<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=George Kumler |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5C8kAAAAMAAJ |title=This Generation: A Selection of British and American Literature from 1914 to the Present |last2=Walton |first2=Eda Lou |date=1939 |publisher=Scott, Foresman |language=en}}</ref> * ''So Many Daughters'' (1952)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walton |first=Eda Lou |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JUZKAAAAMAAJ |title=So Many Daughters |date=1952 |publisher=Bookman Associates |language=en}}</ref> * "Younger Voices" (1954, review essay)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Walton |first=Eda Lou |date=1954 |title=Younger Voices |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20585243 |journal=Poetry |volume=83 |issue=6 |pages=343–347 |jstor=20585243 |issn=0032-2032}}</ref>
== Personal life == Walton married fellow graduate student Otto L. Tinklepaugh in 1920.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1920-10-01 |title=O. L. Tinklepaugh to Wed Miss Edna Walton Today |pages=1 |work=The Deming Headlight |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120236590/o-l-tinklepaugh-to-wed-miss-edna/ |access-date=2023-03-05 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Her second husband was labor lawyer David Mandel.<ref name=":2" /> She died in 1961, in Alameda County, California, at the age of 67.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1963-12-26 |title=Works of Eda Lou Walton Featured in NM Quarterly |pages=25 |work=The Albuquerque Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120235846/works-of-eda-lou-walton-featured-in-nm/ |access-date=2023-03-05 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Her papers are in the collection of the Bancroft Library at Berkeley.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Eda Lou Walton papers, circa 1910-1960s |url=https://oac.cdlib.org/search?style=oac4;Institution=UC%20Berkeley::Bancroft%20Library;titlesAZ=E;idT=UCb112294303 |access-date=2023-03-05 |website=Online Archive of California}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links ==
* [https://librivox.org/author/9387?primary_key=9387&search_category=author&search_page=1&search_form=get_results Eda Lou Walton, "So It Befell" (1921)], a recording of a poem by Walton, at LibriVox {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walton, Eda Lou}} Category:1894 births Category:1961 deaths Category:20th-century American poets Category:20th-century American women poets Category:New York University faculty Category:People from Deming, New Mexico Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni