Widdemer << WIHD uh muhr >>, Margaret (1884-1978), an American author, received a special Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1919 for her collection Old Road to Paradise (1918). She shared the award with Carl Sandburg. Widdemer’s best-known book of poems is The Factory with Other Lyrics (1915). The collection passionately attacks child labor abuses and supports the rights of oppressed workers. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning collection is more sentimental. Many of Widdemer’s poems were published in two volumes of Collected Poems (1928, 1957).
Widdemer also wrote novels, short stories, essays, magazine articles, and two guides for beginning authors. Her first novel, The Rose-Colored Husband (1915), about a young librarian, was a bestseller. Widdemer wrote a series of novels for girls as well as historical novels and novels on modern subjects. She wrote a memoir, Golden Friends I Had (1964).
Widdemer was born on Sept. 30, 1884, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She died on July 14, 1978.
