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From: Ross Clark <benlizro@ihug.co.nz>
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Laura Riding died (2/9/1991)
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2024 22:12:56 +1200
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American poet. Born NYC 1901. Cornell graduate.
Went to Europe in 1925 and hung out with Robert Graves and his wife, 
then without his wife (see Wiki for "famous literary scandal") for 14 
years. Big influence on his work. Back in USA, married someone named 
Jackson and settled in Florida. "Lived quietly and simply" (Wiki) until 
her death*.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Riding

Oh, and about language? Yes, Crystal: "a fascination with words was 
always present [in her poetry]...Her writing is full of intriguing and 
unconventional linguistic observations, such as: 'Language is a form of 
laziness; the word is a compromise between what is possible to express 
and what is not possible to express."

About 1941 she gave up writing poetry, and didn't start to explain why 
until 20 years later. "Her later writings attest to what she regarded as 
the truth-potential contained in language and in the human mind. She 
might be regarded as a spiritual teacher whose unusually high valuation 
of language, led her to choose literature as the locus of her work." (Wiki)
	

*Some of the quiet and simple living was done in what Wiki calls a 
"vernacular cracker house" at Vero Beach FL. Wiki links us to an article 
describing this type of architecture:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_cracker_architecture

I have always encountered "cracker" as a mildly offensive term, somewhat 
like "redneck". It's interesting to see it being rehabilitated in this way.