Left Handed Poets

Author: Sykeena Jackson

The natural gift of being a poet is rare just like the gift of being left handed.  We've composed a growing list of poets along with pictures of them using their left hand and accompanying biographies.  We strive hard to provide the most accurate information possible, so if we couldn't find a picture, we didn't list them as a left handed poet.  Some may be missing if we couldn't find proof.

Poet Birthdate
Helen Hooven Santmyer November 25, 1895 – February 21, 1986
James Baldwin August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987

 

Helen Hooven Santmyer

Helen Hooven Santmyer | left handed poet

This find was completely obvious and accurate as her Wikipedia photo shows her using her left handed while she wrote.  Per Wikipedia, here's a short snippet of Ms. Santmyer's biography and we must say quite interesting.

Helen Hooven Santmyer (November 25, 1895 – February 21, 1986) was an American writer, educator, and librarian. She is primarily known for her best-selling epic "...And Ladies of the Club", published when she was in her 80s
Santmyer was born on November 25, 1895 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the oldest child of John Wright and Bertha Hooven Santmyer. Her father had been a medical student in Cincinnati, but in 1900 switched to business and moved to the Hooven family home in Xenia, taking a position with the R.A. Kelly Company, a rope manufacturer. Inspired by Louisa May Alcott, Santmyer was determined to become a writer and kept a diary from age 10. She also derived inspiration from her grandfathers; both were veterans of the American Civil War and would relate stories of their service. She furthermore derived negative inspiration from her mother, who she felt sacrificed a promising career as an artist for the sake of marriage and children, and was determined never to marry.

James Baldwin

James Baldwin | Left handed poet

Until today, I did not know that James Baldwin was left handed.  Not that I ever searched for that particular trait in him anyway. I am a James Baldwin fan indeed as I've read a lot of his work. He was a brilliant poet and author.  He played a huge role in building social and psychological growth during the civil rights era and continues to educate the minds of his readers worldwide.  He left a legacy.  His work is timeless and still applies today.  Here's a short snippet of his biography per Wikipedia:

James Arthur "Jimmy" Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American novelist and social critic. His essays, as collected in Notes of a Native Son (1955), explore intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th-century America. Some of Baldwin's essays are book-length, including The Fire Next Time (1963), No Name in the Street (1972), and The Devil Finds Work (1976). An unfinished manuscript, Remember This House, was expanded and adapted for cinema as the Academy Award-nominated documentary film I Am Not Your Negro.


Baldwin's novels and plays fictionalize fundamental personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures thwarting the equitable integration not only of African Americans, but also of gay and bisexual men, while depicting some internalized obstacles to such individuals' quests for acceptance. Such dynamics are prominent in Baldwin's second novel, Giovanni's Room, written in 1956, well before the gay liberation movement.

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