Lola Ridge (1873 - 1941)

Fri Dec 12, 1873

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Lola Ridge, born on this day in 1873, was an Irish-American anarchist poet and an influential editor of avant-garde, feminist, and Marxist publications. Her collections include Firehead (1930), Red Flag (1927), Sun-up, and Other Poems (1920), and The Ghetto, and Other Poems (1918).

Dedicated to radical politics, Ridge’s subject matter was often the stories of the working class. She was arrested while protesting against the executions of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in 1927.

“As for the common men apart, Who sweat to keep their common breath, And have no hour for books or art-- What dreams have these to hide from death!”

- Lola Ridge