Marion Manville Pope


Marion Manville Pope was an American author of poetry and juvenile literature. After marriage, she traveled to Cuba and Mexico.

Early years and education

Marion Manville was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin, July 13, 1859. She was the daughter of Marvin Madison Monroe Manville and Helen Adelia Manville. Pope was an active, intelligent and precocious child. In her early childhood, she wrote verses in great numbers, and most of her work was surprisingly good for someone of her age.
Pope was a woman of liberal education and varied talents and accomplishments. She was a pupil of the Lyceum School in New York City.

Career

Some of her earlier productions were included with later ones in Pope's first published book, Over the Divide. The volume passed through several editions, and the critics received it favorably. Many of the poems contained in the book were read by dramatic readers. Her poems found wide currency, but she believed that her best work was her prose fiction. Her love for children led her to write for them, and in their behalf, she contributed both prose and verse to St. Nicholas Magazine, Wide Awake, Our Little Ones, The Nursery, Babyhood, and other periodicals devoted to the young. Her work showed not only true poetic gifts, but also careful thinking and proper attention to form. Her poems were clear-cut and finely polished.
On September 22, 1891, she married Charles Alvan Pope, F. R. G. S., author, of Valparaiso, Chile, and she made that city her permanent home. She traveled after marriage in Cuba and Mexico.
She was a dramatic reader, and an artist of merit. Her work included crayon, oils, and pen and ink. She modeled well, and some of her heads were genuinely artistic. She was a social favorite in society. Pope's writings inspired the allegorical sculpture, The End of the Trail by James Earle Fraser.

''Up the matterhorn in a boat''

Of Up the matterhorn in a boat, the Harford Post review in Book News: An Illustrated Magazine of Literature and Books, said of it:—
The Delineator provided a review as well, saying:—

Selected works

*