Edith Franklin Wyatt

Edith Franklin Wyatt was born in Tomah, Wisconsin, on September 14, 1873, and went to Bryn Mawr College from 1892 to 1894. She taught at a private school for five years before becoming an instructor at Hull House, a Chicago settlement house, and participating in Little Room, a Chicago salon. She spent the rest of her life writing and living in Chicago.

Though Wyatt wrote poetry and served as one of the three members of Poetry magazine’s first Advisory Committee, she was best known for her prose. Wyatt published multiple books of fiction and nonfiction, including The Satyr’s Children: A Fable (Argus Books, 1939); The Invisible Gods (Harper & Brothers, 1923); Great Companions (D. Appleton & Co., 1917); Making Both Ends Meet: The Income and Outlay of New York Working Girls (The Macmillan Company, 1911), with Sue Ainslie Clark; True Love: A Comedy of the Affections (McClure, Phillips & Co., 1903); and Every One His Own Way (McClure, Phillips & Co., 1901).

Wyatt, who was dedicated to social causes, became known as a social commentator and Progressive activist, writing about labor inequalities, animal abuse, and other socio-political issues she observed in Chicago. She died in Chicago in October 1958.