| Biographical
Sketch of Marcella Miller Du Pont
Marcella Miller Du Pont, born September 9, 1903,
was the daughter of Emma Combs Miller and Arthur Scott Miller, a
Colorado pioneer and Denver businessman. She attended Wolcott School
in Denver and Smith College in Northhampton, Massachusetts. She
married Alfred Victor Du Pont in 1924. They lived for many years
in Wilmington, Delaware and were divorced in 1948. Her poetry, published
in Sonnets and Lyrics in 1950 and Poems: Folio Two
in 1956, reflects the influence of Edna St. Vincent Milay and Emily
Dickinson.
Marcella Miller Du Pont attended Wolcott School for Girls from
which she graduated in 1920. In a letter to Jane Gould of the University
of Denver, Marcella Du Pont reminisced about her youth in New York:
“Your mentioning Frank Case reminded me of pre-War New York days
when his daughter, Maggie Harriman, introduced me to her group,
which included Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, and a number of
male New Yorker writers. As you can imagine, with these people there
were conversational fireworks all the time that, by rights, should
have touched off a major conflagration in the heart of New York
City” (from a letter to Jane Gould dated January 23, 1968).
In 1966, Marcella Du Pont wrote to the University of Denver about
endowing a study room in the library to house her papers and her
brother’s collection: “In other words, what I visualize is a room
where students or scholars could work in pleasant, comfortable surroundings…”
(from letter of June 8, 1966). On May 26, 1967, the room was dedicated
in honor of her parents who, she said, “contributed to what Denver
is today and to what Colorado is today” (May 26, 1967 at the dedication
of the room). In numerous letters to University faculty, Marcella's
enthusiastic devotion was always conspicuous. As she once wrote,
“remember that when I am far away, I am always thinking … of the
Room” (from a letter of June 22, 1967).
Marcella Miller Du Pont died September 17, 1985.
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