Leonora Speyer (1872–1956) was an American poet and violinist. She studied music in Brussels, Paris, and Leipzig, and played the violin professionally under the batons of Arthur Nikisch and Anton Seidl, among others. She first married Louis Meredith Howland in 1894, but they divorced in Paris in 1902. She then married banker Edgar Speyer (later Sir Edgar), of London, where the couple lived until 1915. Sir Edgar had German ancestry and following anti-German attacks on him that year, they moved to the United States and took up residence in New York, where Speyer began writing poetry. She won the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her book of poetry Fiddler's Farewell. Her other poetry collections include Slow Wall: Poems Together with Nor Without Music (Alfred A. Knopf, 1946) and A Canopic Jar (E. P. Dutton, 1921). Speyer died in New York City on February 10, 1956.
Leonora Speyer
Studios
Mansfield
Leonora Speyer worked in the Mansfield studio.
The Helen Coolidge Mansfield Studio was donated by graduates of the Mansfield War Service Classes for Reconstruction Aides. Helen Mansfield helped found the New York MacDowell Club. The small, shingled frame structure with stone foundation was originally fronted on the west side by a neat white picket fence and gate, a garden, and a stone pathway…