McGinley, Phyllis, 1905-78, American poet, b. Ontario, Oreg. Her light verse treats aspects of modern life with humor and underlying seriousness. Among her best-known collections of verse are A Pocketful of Wry (1940), The Love Letters of Phyllis McGinley (1950), and Times Three (1960; Pulitzer Prize). She also wrote many light essays as well as criticism, children's books, and song lyrics. Saint-Watching (1969) recounts the lives of various saints with irreverence and affection.

Phyllis McGinley (March 21, 1905 - February 22, 1978) was an U.S. writer of children's books and poet about the positive aspects of suburban life.

McGinley was born in Ontario, Oregon. At age 3, her family moved to Colorado, and on to Ogden, Utah after her father died.

She studied at the University of Southern California and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, graduating in 1927. She then taught at a junior high school in New Rochelle, New York for one year, until her career as a writer and poet took off.

Her poems were published in the New York Herald Tribune and The New Yorker, among others. She also wrote the lyrics for a musical revue, Small Wonder, in 1948.

In 1955, she was elected a member of the National Academy of Arts and Letters.

In 1961 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; in 1964 she was honored with the Laetare Medal by the University of Notre Dame (described as 'An honor to a man or woman who has "enriched the heritage of humanity"'). She also holds nearly a dozen honorary degrees - "including one from the stronghold of strictly masculine pride, Dartmouth College." (from the dust jacket of Sixpence in Her Shoes (copy 1964)).

McGinley died in New York.

Works

Collected poems

• On the Contrary (1934)
• One More Manhattan (1937)
• Husbands Are Difficult (1941)
• Stones from Glass Houses (1946)
• Merry Christmas, Happy New Year (1958)
• Times Three: Selected Verse from Three Decades (1960), winning a Pulitzer prize
• Sugar and Spice (1960)
• A Wreath of Christmas Legends (1967)
• Fourteenth Birthday (date unknown)

Collected essays

• Province of the Heart (1959)
• Sixpence in Her Shoe (1964)
• Wonderful Time (1966)
• Saint Watching (1969)

Children's books

• The Horse That Lived Upstairs (1944)
• All Around the Town (1948)
• Blunderbus (1951)
• The Make-Believe Twins (1953)
• The Year without a Santa Claus (1957)
• Boys Are Awful (1962)
• How Mrs. Santa Claus Saved Christmas (1963)