Susan Farley Nichols Pulsifer (1892-1987) was born in Oyster Bay, Long Island. She married poet-editor Harold Trowbridge Pulsifer in October 1924. After the decline of Harold’s journal, the Outlook, in the late 1920s, the Pulsifers moved to Maine, buying a saltwater farm near Harpswell and spending their time there and in Brunswick.
Susan worked in French hospitals during World War One and led a campaign to bring British children to America during World War Two. She wrote and published fiction, poetry and essays under her maiden and married names. Titles include: Water Colors, South of France (1921); Fighting French Ballads (1943); L’Esprit de la France (1944); Scenes From the Life of Jesus in Woodcut (1947); Children Are Poets (1963); Witch’s Breed (1967); and, Southern Sketch Book (1975). A number of her poems on Free France were translated by Marguerite Clement in Pour Toi, France (1949).
After Harold’s death in 1948, Susan lived in New York City. She died and was buried in Downington, Pennsylvania in August 1987.
SUSAN NICHOLS PULSIFER AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
Susan Pulsifer gave her husband’s poetry library to Colby in 1948. The Pulsifer Poetry Room in Miller Library was completed in 1963 and dedicated in 1964. She retained a correspondence with President Strider through the 1960s and 1970s, donating additional published and unpublished materials for the Pulsifer Collection, also several associated collections.
Works consulted:
Colby Library Quarterly. Waterville, ME: Colby College Library. Print and web.
“Susan N Pulisfer.” New York Times obituary. 4 September 1987. Web. 31 March 2015.
Susan N Pulsifer donor file. Colby College Special Collections.
ASSOCIATED COLLECTIONS
Harold Trowbridge Pulsifer – primary collection