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Frederic Ridgely Torrence (November 27, 1874 – December 25, 1950) was an American poet and editor. He received the Shelley Memorial Award in 1942 and the Academy of American Poets' Fellowship in 1947.
He had tutors while he was growing up and attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, from 1893 to 1895 and transferred to Princeton University. He withdrew from Princeton after he suffered an illness that prevented him from returning to school in 1896.
The verse plays, showing the influence of John Millington Synge, showed realistic portrayals of African Americans, and a revolt against their station in society. (1998). 9781579580087, Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781579580087 While his verse dramas were published as books, they were not produced as plays.
In 1914, his one-act play Granny Maumee, which was first performed by a white cast, helped create opportunities for black actors in theaters in America when it was produced with black actors in 1917. It was "one of the first opportunities for serious black actors". Torrence's collection of plays, Three Plays for a Negro Theater premiered in 1917, as a production of the Negro Players. His work was noteworthy in its blending of compassion and strength.
Torrence had fellowships to MacDowell Colony, the artist colony, in 1914, 1917, and then every year from 1942 to 1950. In 1938, he was poet in residence at Antioch College and in 1941 to 1942, he was Fellow in Creative Writing at Miami University.
He was poetry editor of The New Republic (1920–33), mentoring Louise Bogan. He organized the National Survey of the Negro Theater (1939), for the Rockefeller Foundation. The posthumous book Poems, of Torrence's selected poetry, was published in 1952. He chose works that reflected his values, compassion for others, sense of injustice among people, and a faith in mankind.
Torrence died on December 25, 1950, in New York City. His papers are held at Princeton. Olivia died on January 6, 1953.
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