Scofield Thayer

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Scofield Thayer (12 December 1889 — 1982) was an American poet and publisher, best known as the publisher of the literary magazine The Dial during the 1920s.

Scofield Thayer was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on 12 December 1889 to Edward D. Thayer and Florence Scofield Thayer. The Thayers were a prominent and wealthy Massachusetts family. Scofield's father was the owner of several area wool mills, a founding investor in the Crompton & Thayer Loom Company, and a director of the Worcester Trust Company. Scofield's uncle Ernest Thayer was the author of the well-known poem "Casey at the Bat".

Thayer entered Harvard University in 1913. His Harvard years would prove formative; during them Thayer would hone his poetic voice, and serve on the staff of the Harvard Monthly. During these years Thayer would also meet many other young poets and authors, including E. E. Cummings, Alan Seeger, Lincoln MacVeagh, and Gilbert Seldes. After Harvard, he went to Oxford at the same time as T. S. Eliot.^[1]

Thayer married Elaine Orr 21 June 1916. He commissioned his friend E. E. Cummings to write his poem "Epithalamion" as a wedding present. The marriage did not last long, however, as by 1919 Elaine was having an affair with Cummings, even giving birth to a daughter, Nancy, by Cummings in December of that year.

Thayer's involvement with The Dial began in April 1918 when he purchased $600 USD worth of stock in the magazine. In late 1919, Thayer and his friend James Sibley Watson, Jr. purchased The Dial from the owner, Martyn Johnson, who was experiencing financial trouble. Sibley became the magazine's president whilst Thayer took up the post of editor. The Sibley/Thayer-produced Dial released its first issue in January 1920. The issue featured works from Thayer's friend E. E. Cummings, Gaston Lachaise, Carl Sandburg, and others.

In July 1921, Thayer sailed for Europe. He settled in Vienna, and, although he would remain there for more than two years, he would continue to direct the operations of The Dial, soliciting financial backing from European investors and sending layout and content instructions back to the magazine's offices in New York regularly.

During the late 1920s Thayer began to experience a series of mental breakdowns, and began to deteriorate. He resigned as editor of The Dial in June 1926, and spent the remainder of his life in the care of relatives and various institutions and sanatoria. Without Thayer's financial backing, The Dial went bankrupt and published its final issue in July 1929.