Agnes Lee

This article is about the American poet. For the daughter of Robert E. Lee, see Eleanor Agnes Lee.

Agnes Lee (née Martha Agnes Rand; 1862–1939) was an American poet and translator.

Agnes Lee
Photo of Lee taken by her first husband, Francis Watts Lee
Born	Martha Agnes Rand (1862-03-06)March 6, 1862 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	July 23, 1939(1939-07-23) (aged 77) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Resting place	Graceland Cemetery
Spouses	Francis Watts Lee Otto Freer
Children	1
Parent(s)	William H. Rand Harriet H. Robinson

Biography

Lee was born Martha Agnes Rand in Chicago on March 6, 1862.^[1][a] She was the second daughter of William H. Rand, an American printer and publisher who co-founded the Rand McNally Company.^[2][3] She was educated at a boarding school in Vevey, Switzerland.^[2]

Lee wrote a collection of children's verse in 1898 titled The Round Rabbit.^[2] Her debut poetry collection, The Legend of a Thought, was published in 1889.^[2] She wrote books of poetry including The Border of the Lake in 1910, The Sharing in 1914, Faces and Open Doors in 1922, and New Lyrics and a Few Old Ones in 1931.^[2][4] She translated Théophile Gautier's Enamels and Cameos and Other Poems in 1903.^[2] In 1926, Lee received the guarantor's prize from Poetry Magazine.^[2]

Lee's grave at Graceland Cemetery

In 1890 she married Francis Watts Lee, a photographer, and moved to Boston.^[2] They had a daughter. In 1911 she married Otto Freer, a surgeon.^[2] Her second husband died in 1932.

Lee died from pneumonia on July 23, 1939, at her home in Chicago.^[2] She was buried at Graceland Cemetery.^[2][5] A collection of letters exchanged between her and poet Edgar Lee Masters is archived in the Newberry Library in Chicago.^[2][6][7]

Notes

1. Some sources give her birth year as 1868.^[2] Her gravestone shows March 24, 1862.