Louise McNeill

Who was Louise McNeill?

Louise McNeill was an American poet, essayist, and historian of Appalachia.

McNeill was born January 9, 1911 in Buckeye, West Virginia, USA on a farm that her family had owned since 1769. Her father, G. D. McNeil was a writer who published a collections of short stories about the forests of Pocahontas County, West Virginia. She wrote her first poem at 16, pecking it out on a friend's typewriter. The experience caused her to vow "to be a poet and write poems forever."

She graduated from Concord College and then got her master's from Miami University in Ohio. She earned her doctorate from West Virginia University. She also studied at Middlebury College with the poet Robert Frost, and at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

In 1939 she married Roger Pease. She taught English and history for over 30 years, including positions in rural one-room schools in West Virginia, at Potomac State College, Fairmont State College, and West Virginia University.

Louis McNeill began her publishing career selling short poems to the Saturday Evening Post. In 1931 her first collection, Mountain White, was published. She went on to publish six other collections.