Minna Irving (1864-1940)

Aka Minnie Irving

Pseudonym of Minnie Odell
aka Mrs. Irving Hasbrouck De Lamater, Mrs. Harry Michener, Aurelia Maxwell Michener

Singer, Songwriter, Poet, Journalist, Author
Born May 17, 1864, Tarrytown, New York
Died July 23, 1940, Christian Sanitarium, Wyckoff, New Jersey

Known over the course of her long life and career as Minna Irving, poet and author Minnie Odell was born on May 17, 1864, in Tarrytown, New York. Her parents were William Roamer Odell (1840-?), a carpenter, and Mary Ann (Van Tassel) Odell (1842-1926), a near lifelong companion to her. Minnie started writing poems and songs at a young age. Counted in the 1880 census as "Minnie I. Odell," she gave her occupation, at age seventeen, as "authoress." The "Irving" part of her name seems to have been an invention, no doubt assumed for its association with a local luminary. After all, Tarrytown is and was famous as the home of Washington Irving (1783-1859), who died just five years before Minnie Odell was born. "Minna" was supposed to have been suggested by an editor at The Century close to the outset of her career. (1)

Now, none of that is to say that Minna Irving was not connected somehow to Washington Irving. Here is an excerpt from a feature article from 1962:

On March 20, 1800, [Joseph Cutler] purchased from Dr. Mordecai Hale the 165-acres John Van Tassel farm on the east side of Broadway in Tarrytown. On the property was kept prior to and during the Revolution as a tavern. It later became known as the Jacob Mott House. (2)

The house is gone now, but the surname Van Tassel will live on in that of Katrina Van Tassel, love interest of Washington Irving's hero Ichabod Crane. I can't be sure, but I believe that the previous owner of the Jacob Mott House was the same John Van Tassel (?-1813) who was also Minna Irving's maternal grandfather. So maybe if there was a connection, it was her on mother's side. One of Minna Irving's early works was "Folk Lore Tales of Sleepy Hollow," from 1885 or before.

The FictionMags Index has a long, long list of Minna Irving's credits. They begin with these four poems:

• "Bayard Taylor: in Memoriam" in Peterson’s Magazine (Feb. 1880)
• "Westminster Abbey" in Peterson’s Magazine (Sept. 1880)
• "Shakspere" in Scribner’s Monthly (Dec. 1880)
• "Dean Stanley: Obit 1881" Peterson’s Magazine (Jan. 1882) (3)

Her poem "The Haunted Heart," published in The Century in December 1885, became the title piece of a collection, Songs of a Haunted Heart (1888). Minna Irving had scores more poems, stories, and other pieces in Ainslee's Magazine, The Century, The Gray Goose, Lippincott's, Munsey's, New York Herald, Peterson's, The Smart Set, and other titles from 1882 to 1937.

Minna's last dated piece in The FictionMags Index was also her only poem in Weird Tales, "Sea-Wind," from August 1937. She contributed to other pulp magazines, too, including All-Story Love Stories, Argosy All-Story Weekly, Breezy Stories, and, oddly enough, Amazing Stories. Here are all of the poems and a story by Minna Irving listed in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDb):

• "The Witches" (poem) (1890)
• "The Violet Immortal" (poem) in Putnam’s Monthly and The Critic (Oct. 1906)
• "The Spirit-Boats" (poem) in Argosy All-Story Weekly (Apr. 14, 1923); reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries (Dec. 1939) and Famous Fantastic Mysteries (Dec. 1951)
• "The Return" (poem) in The Haunted Hour, edited by Margaret Widdemer (Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920)
• "The Moon Woman" (short story) in Amazing Stories (Nov. 1929)
• "Sea-Wind" (poem) in Weird Tales (Aug. 1937)

A look at The FictionMags Index will show some other titles that sound like they could also be for genre works.

Under her married name, Mrs. Harry Michener or Aurelia Maxwell Michener, Minna had poems published in magazines of the Great American West:

• "The Cattleman's Choice" (poem) in Sunset: The Pacific Monthly (Aug. 1913)
• "At the Rancho Gonzales" (poem) in Overland Monthly (Feb. 1914)
•  "The Cameo" (poem) in Overland Monthly (June 1914)

Minna Irving was married and divorced twice. First came Irving Hasbrouck De Lamater (1870-1953), with whom she tied the knot on October 18, 1889, while he was on leave from West Point. October 18 was a Friday. While on a camping trip, the young couple were told by a Gypsy fortuneteller that to be married on a Friday is to bring bad luck, so they married again on July 5, 1890, in Peekskill, New York. The bad luck came anyway, so bad that after they separated, Minna bought a revolver to protect herself from De Lamater.

They divorced in 1911. Her second husband was Harry Heber Michener (1873-1949), a native Hoosier, later of California. He was a mine owner and race car driver and "generally conceded to be one of the most daring men of the country." (4) He would have to be if he was going to woo and wed Minna Irving, that "Sweet Singer of Sleepy Hollow," for she had been involved in scandals, lawsuits, and all kinds of tussles--though maybe mostly in her youth. Regarding one disagreement from 1894, editor M.D. Raymond of the Tarrytown Argus said in exasperation, "Don't mention the name of Minna Irving to me again." (5)

Minna Irving worked on the editorial staff of the New York Herald. In 1899, she received a gold medal for her poem on the sinking of the Maine. In 1923, the French government commissioned her to compose a poem to be engraved on a plaque on the grave of Quentin Roosevelt (1897-1918). She went on to write poems even into the last decade of her life. Minna Irving died on July 23, 1940, at Christian Sanitarium in Wyckoff, New Jersey.

Minna Irving's Poem in Weird Tales

"Sea-Wind" (Aug. 1937)

Further Reading

There are hundreds of newspaper articles on Minna Irving, including an obituary in the New York Times, dated July 7, 1940.

Notes

(1) See "On the War Path" in Yonkers Statesman (Yonkers, New York), December 1, 1885, page 3.

(2) From The Daily Times, Mamaroneck, New York, August 2, 1962, page 12.

(3) Dean Stanley was Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815-1881).

(4) According to the Times-Democrat of New Orleans, in an article of January 17, 1909, page 27.

(5) "Minna Irving Upholds History" in the New York Sun, October 9, 1894, page 6.

Minna Irving (1864-1940), a photographic portrait from her book Songs of a Haunted Heart (1888). I have cropped this picture and have recolored it in order to tone down a moiré effect from a digital scan of the original. 

Original text copyright 2022 Terence E. Hanley