Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/714



Poet, short story writer, critic and teacher, Mrs. Mable Holmes Parsons has been professor of English in the University of Oregon since 1912, during most of those years in full-time assignment to the Portland Extension Center, where she has had an opportunity beyond that of any other teacher in the state to train creative writers in verse and prose. She was born n Saginaw, Michigan, and was graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor of arts degree in 1904 and a master of arts degree in 1906. She began contributing verse to national magazines while still a student, and later for several years followed journalistic work as music and drama editor and as a columnist and feature writer. Her other work has included 18 years as a professional soprano, a short time with a professional stock company, a half year as a social worker in Chicago and a short while on the editorial staff of a Chicago trade magazine. She came with her husband and daughter to Oregon in 1910, lived for two years at Medford where she was city librarian, and since then, with the exception of a year of study and travel abroad, has taught university courses in writing and in literature. The manuscripts of others have left her only a limited amount of time for manuscripts of her own, but a good poem or short story by a student gives her the vicarious productive thrill which accounts for the beneficence of great teachers and great editors. She is a contributor of verse, short stories, articles and reviews to magazines and newspapers and is author of Pastels and Silhouettes, a book of poems, 1921.