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Roberta Elisabeth "Betty" Sebenthall (January 6, 1917 - January 27, 1979) was an American novelist and poet, based in Wisconsin. She published fifteen detective novels and several volumes of poetry, sometimes under masculine pseudonyms.

Early life and education

Sebenthall was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and raised in Mount Horeb, the daughter of Robert Graham Sebenthall and Laura Rosalie Cote Sebenthall. Her father was a businessman.

Career

Sebenthall worked in a munitions plant during World War II. She wrote fifteen detective novels and several volumes of poetry, sometimes under masculine pseudonyms, including "Paul Kruger" and "Harry Davis". She also wrote book reviews for the Milwaukee Journal, and local history articles for the Wisconsin State Journal.

August Derleth praised Sebenthall's first poetry collection, Acquainted with a Chance of Bobcats (1969), for "a freshness of language, a vividness of imagery that comes naturally from her pen, without straining for effect." "Sebenthall's poems are formal recollections of a natural ethic," explains one scholar. "Through her poetry, she attempts to see primeval qualities, feelings, in this time of more civilized modes."

In 1968 Sebenthall was awarded the Writer's Cup by the Madison chapter of Theta Sigma Pi. In 1970 she received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for her writing.

Publications

• "To Guadalcanal and Back" (1943, short story, as Harry Davis)
• The Desperate Wall (1949, as Roberta Hill)
• Portait of Rene (1956, as Harry Davis)
• My Brother's Wife (1956, as Harry Davis)
• A Bullet for a Blonde (1958, as Paul Kruger)
• Dig Her a Grave (1960, as Paul Kruger)
• Bedroom Alibi (1961, as Paul Kruger)
• "Thoreau" (1961, poem)
• A Message for Marise (1963, as Paul Kruger)
• "Lone Wolf" (1963, poem)
• "Easter Island" (1963, poem)
• Weep for Willow Green (1966, as Paul Kruger)
• Weave a Wicked Web (1967, as Paul Kruger)
• "The Holy Indigents" (1967)
• If the Shroud Fits (1968, as Paul Kruger)
• The Finish Line (1968, as Paul Kruger)
• Acquainted with a Chance of Bobcats (1969, poems)
• "The Artisan as Hero" (1971, poem)
• The Bronze Claws (1972, as Paul Kruger)
• The Cold Ones (1972, as Paul Kruger)
• Voyages to the Inland Sea (1973, poems, with Thomas McGrath and Robert Dana)
• "The Villages" (1975, poem)
• Anatomy of a December (1978, poems)

Personal life

Sebenthall had a longtime personal partnership with Mary T. Locke; they met in New York City in 1940. Sebenthall died from emphysema in 1979, at the age of 62, in Mount Horeb. Locke died within months after Sebenthall, and the two women share a gravesite in Mount Horeb. The Mount Horeb Area Historical Society holds a collection of Sebenthall's books, paintings, and other materials.

References

1. ^ Wagner, R. Richard (2019-05-30). We've Been Here All Along: Wisconsin's Early Gay History. Wisconsin Historical Society. pp. 306–307. ISBN 978-0-87020-913-0.
2. "Mt. Horeb School Pupils Placed on Honor Roll". Wisconsin State Journal. 1926-12-04. p. 13. Retrieved 2024-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
3. Who's Who of American Women. Marquis Who's Who. 1973. p. 799. ISBN 978-0-8379-0409-2.
4. "Robert G. Sebenthall". Wisconsin State Journal. 1942-03-03. p. 5. Retrieved 2024-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
5. ^ "'Whodunit' author Sebenthall dies". Wisconsin State Journal. 1979-01-29. p. 36. Retrieved 2024-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
6. ^ Schlatter, Janet M. (1966-11-06). "Mystery Tale Has Unlikely Author". Star Tribune. p. 84. Retrieved 2024-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
7. Sebenthall, Betty (1954-08-01). "What's Mt. Horeb's Past? Ask Nora Evans". Wisconsin State Journal. p. 15. Retrieved 2024-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
8. Sebenthall, Betty (1955-03-06). "Still a Dahlen There; Mt. Horeb Telephone System Grows Up from the Days of the 'Big Magic Box'". Wisconsin State Journal. p. 17. Retrieved 2024-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
9. Sebenthall, Betty (1956-09-02). "Mt. Horeb Church's Centennial; Lutherans Plan Week Celebration". Wisconsin State Journal. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
10. Derleth, August (1970-02-12). "Betty Sebenthall's Poems". The Capital Times. p. 17. Retrieved 2024-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
11. Stephens, Jim, ed. (1989). The Journey home : the literature of Wisconsin through four centuries. Internet Archive. Madison, Wis. : North Country Press. p. 629. ISBN 978-0-944133-02-6.
12. ^ "Betty Sebenthall Receives Writer's Cup at Press Event". The Capital Times. 1968-05-06. p. 12. Retrieved 2024-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
13. ^ "The Sebenthall Project: Betty Sebenthall, Author, Poet, Painter" (PDF). Past Times: Mount Horeb Area Historical Society: 6–9. April 2013.
14. Sebenthall, R. E. "Thoreau" The Colorado Quarterly 10(2)(Autumn 1961): 133. via Internet Archive.
15. Sebenthall, R. E. (Autumn 1963). "Lone Wolf". The Massachusetts Review. 6 (4).
16. Sebenthall, R. E. "Easter Island" Kenyon Review (Summer 1963).
17. Sebenthall, R. E. (Spring 1967). "The Holy Indigents". Western Humanities Review. 21 (2): 154.
18. ^ "Undercover". Leader-Telegram. 1972-07-06. p. 12. Retrieved 2024-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
19. ^ Peterson, Gary (1979-03-05). "Poet's words still 'blaze like sumac'". The Capital Times. p. 13. Retrieved 2024-09-06 – via Newspapers.com.
20. Sebenthall, R. E. (Spring 1971). "The Artisan as Hero". Western Humanities Review. 25 (2): 127.
21. Best Poems of 1971: Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards 1972. Internet Archive. Pacific Book Pub. 1972. ISBN 978-0-87015-200-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
22. Voyages to the Inland Sea: R. E. Sebenthall, Thomas McGrath, Robert Dana. Center for Contemporary Poetry, Wisconsin State University at La Crosse. 1973.
23. Stryk, Lucien (1975). Heartland II : poets of the Midwest. Internet Archive. De Kalb : Northern Illinois University Press. p. 195. ISBN 978-0-87580-050-9.

• 1917 births
• 1979 deaths
• People from Mount Horeb, Wisconsin
• 20th-century American poets
• 20th-century American novelists
• American women writers