Inez Haynes Gillmore Irwin

Inez Haynes Gillmore Irwin was a writer and feminist. Her writing includes history, journalism, editorial work, novels (science fiction, mystery, fiction, children's books), short stories, and juvenile stories (the Maida books).

Biography

Born Inez Haynes, March 2, 1873, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her parents (Gideon Haynes and Emma Jane Hopkins Haynes) were from Boston and returned there while Gillmore was raised. She became involved in the women's suffrage movement at Radcliffe (1897-1900) and belonged to the National Women's Party advisory council. Her first husband, Rufus Gillmore (m. 8/30/1897), was a newspaperman who supported her feminism. Their marriage ultimately ended in divorce. Shortly after her first novel was published she became fiction editor for The Masses, a left-wing magazine. She lived in New York for much of her life. She and her second husband, Will(iam Henry) Irwin (m. 2/1/1916) lived in Europe reporting on World War I. She retired to Scituate, Massachusetts after Irwin's death in 1948. She died September 25, 1970.

Her niece, Phyllis Duganne, 1899-1976, was also a writer and suffragist. Her papers are available at Smith College in the Sophia Smith Collection. See http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss87.html.

Generally listed as Inez Haynes Gillmore, but may also be listed as Inez Haynes Irwin.

Inez Haynes' diaries, manuscripts, letters, etc., available at the Yale Archives. Some materials also available on microfilm at the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe, Harvard (M-59; Research Publications, Inc., History of Women, 1975-1979. 24 reels, #966-970, 973-983, 988-995. See http://www.radcliffe.edu/schles/services/microfilm.php . Also the diary from Feb. 19, 1916-Oct. 26, 1916, and her preliminary notes to her autobiography are available at Cornell.

Profiled in Time, Oct. 8, 1923, Vol. II, No. 6, "Their Wives Are Literary, Too," as wife of Will Irwin.

Their Wives Are Literary, Too Wallace (47) and Will Irwin (50) are brothers of more popular success, certainly, than the poetic Benet brothers (TIME, Oct. 1). Of late years Will Irwin has devoted much of his time to the spreading of peace propaganda throughout the U. S. Wallace has been busy writing short stories and novels. His latest, Lew Tyler's Wives, is a study of the two marriages of one delightful but irresponsible gentleman.Their wives, too, are of the literary persuasion: Inez Haynes Irwin writes girls' stories and novels, and Mrs. Wallace Irwin writes plays, to say nothing of Mr....

Associations

• Author's Guild of America, President, 1931-1933 (1925-1928?)
• Author's Guild of America, Vice-President, 1930-1931
• National Collegiate Equal Suffrage League (co-founder)
• Chairman of Board of Directors of the World Center for Women's Archives 1936-1938/1940.
• Member of American committee of Prix Femina, 1931-1933
• Member, Cosmpolitan
• Member, Heterodoxy
• Member, Query

Bibliography

• Angel Island (1914)

Further reading

• Maida's Little Website
• Information about Maida bindings