Scofield Thayer

Scofield Thayer (12 December 1889 in Worcester, Massachusetts – 9 July 1982 in Edgartown) was a wealthy American poet and publisher, best known for his art collection, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and as a publisher and editor of the literary magazine The Dial during the 1920s. He published many emerging American and European writers. Life and career Thayer was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on 12 December 1889 to Edward D. Thayer and Florence (née Scofield) Thayer. The Thayers were a prominent and wealthy Massachusetts family. Scofield's father was the owner of several area woollen mills, a founding investor in the Crompton & Thayer Loom Company, and a director of the Worcester Trust Company. Scofield's uncle Ernest Thayer was the author of the well-known poem "Casey at the Bat". Thayer was a Harvard University student. His Harvard years would prove formative; during them Thayer would serve on the staff of the Harvard Monthly. During these years Thayer would also meet many other young poets and authors, including E. E. Cummings, Alan Seeger, Lincoln MacVeagh, Arthur Wilson (later known as Winslow Wilson) and Gilbert Seldes. A large dormitory for freshmen at Harvard, in which E. E. Cummings once roomed (room 306), is named after the Thayer family. Thayer graduated from Harvard in 1913. After Harvard, Thayer went to Oxford for post-graduate studies at the same time as T. S. Eliot. Thayer married Elaine Orr on 21 June 1916. He commissioned his friend E. E. Cummings to write his poem "Epithalamion" as a wedding present. The marriage did not last long, however, and Thayer moved to his own place. By 1919 Elaine was having an affair with Cummings, giving birth to their daughter, Nancy, in December of that year.