| Margaret Larkin | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 7, 1899 Las Vegas, New Mexico |
| Died | May 7, 1967 Mexico City, Mexico |
| Occupation | writer, poet, singer-songwriter, researcher, and union activist |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 1922-1967 |
| Genres | fiction, non-fiction |
| Notable work(s) | The Hand of Mordechai Seven shares in a Gold Mine Singing Cowboy |
| Notable award(s) | Kansas Authors' Club Poetry Prize David Belasco Cup Samuel French Prize |
| Spouse(s) | Liston Oak Albert Maltz |
| Relative(s) | Mira Larkin |
Margaret Larkin (July 7, 1899 - May 7, 1967) was an American writer, poet, singer-songwriter, researcher, journalist and union activist.
She wrote The Hand of Mordechai on a kibbutz in Israel, Seven Shares in a Gold Mine about a murder conspiracy in Mexico, and the Singing Cowboy, a collection of Western folk songs.[1] She won awards for her poem Goodbye—To My Mother and her play El Cristo.
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Larkin was born on July 7, 1899 in Las Vegas, New Mexico to parents from English and Scottish descent.[2] She studied at the University of Kansas.[3] In 1922 she won the Poetry Prize of the Kansas Author Club.
After moving to the East Coast, she married Liston Oak and became a trade union activist.[3] In 1926 she wrote the titles of the silent film The Passaic Textile Strike.[4] In the thirties she was active as a singer/songwriter and composer of folk songs.[3]
After divorcing her first husband she met writer Albert Maltz in 1935. Maltz was 9 years younger. They married in 1937.[3] Maltz was blacklisted as one of the Hollywood Ten due to his refusal to tell the House Un-American Activities Committee whether he was a member of the American Communist Party.[3] [2]
Larkin, her husband, and their two children moved to Mexico City in 1951.[2] In 1964 they were officially divorced, after Maltz had already returned to the United States.[2][5]
Larkin assisted anthropologist Oscar Lewis in the research and writing of La Vida - A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture Of Poverty (1966).[3] Her last book was The Hand of Mordechai, on kibbutz Yad Mordechai around the Israeli War of Independence. It was published in Hebrew (1966), Yiddish (1967) and posthumously in English (1968). In 1970 this book was also published in German. Larkin was represented by literary agent Barthold Fles.[3]
She died in Mexico City on May 7, 1967, aged 67.[3] Her granddaughter, Mira Larkin, is an actress and production manager.[6]