Margarette Ball Dickson

Margarette Ball Dickson (June 4, 1884-July 21, 1963) was born in Iowa and attended college at Iowa State Teachers College in the early 1920s, earning her bachelor’s in 1925. She attended the University of South Dakota and received her master’s in 1927. She pursued further graduate studies at the University of Iowa and the University of Chicago. Dickson established the Dickson-Haining School of Creative Writing in Staples, Minnesota in 1931 and co-founded the League of Minnesota Poets and the St. Paul Poet’s Seminar. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Order of the Eastern Star.

Dickson is the author of several collections of poetry including, Fuel of One Flame, Patterns and Poems, and One Man and a Dream. She was president of the League of Minnesota Poets from 1935-38, and in 1934, she was named Minnesota Poet Laureate by the national Poet Laureate League. In 1921, Dickson was awarded the American Legion Prize and, in 1938, the Rockefeller Center Gold Medal. As well as writing her own poetry, Dickson also served on the editorial boards for several magazines.

More information on Margarette Ball Dickson from the Minnesota Historical Society.