Marjorie Anderson: Professor, Librarian, Poet and Author

Dr. Marjorie Anderson was born in 1892 to George F. Anderson and Mary Kingsbury West Anderson. She was the great granddaughter of Dr. George Anderson, an early Sandusky physician who died of cholera in 1834.

Marjorie Anderson graduated from Sandusky High School in 1909.

Marjorie received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Smith College in 1913, and her Master’s degree from Columbia University in 1916. She then studied at Johns Hopkins University, and obtained a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Chicago in 1923. 

Dr. Anderson taught in the Department of English at Hunter College from 1927 until her death in 1954. She was considered an expert in Chaucerian literature, and wrote several magazine articles on Chaucer. Marjorie collaborated with Blanche Colton Williams in writing An Old English Handbook, published in 1935.

In 1920 Marjorie was an Assistant Librarian at the Carnegie Library in Sandusky.

Below is a poem entitled “In a Public Library,” from her book A Web of Thoughts.

In a tribute to her in the New York Times, Lillian Gottesman said that Dr. Anderson was as great a teacher as she was a scholar. She continued “I shall always remember the brilliant mind, gentle voice, smiling face and sweet humility which combined to make the beloved Marjorie Anderson.”

Dr. Anderson’s book is part of the local authors collection of the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library.