Megan Marshall

Megan Marshall is an acclaimed American biographer, historian, and professor known for her deeply researched and literary works on significant women in American history and literature. Her biographies, which have received major literary awards including the Pulitzer Prize, are celebrated for their narrative drive and scholarly rigor, illuminating the lives and contexts of her subjects. She has held teaching positions at several prestigious institutions, including Emerson College and the Harvard University Extension School, contributing to the fields of creative nonfiction and biography.

Biography

Megan Marshall was born on February 11, 1954, in Berkeley, California, and grew up in a family with strong academic and literary interests. She pursued her undergraduate studies at Harvard University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, immersing herself in the study of American literature and history. She later completed a Master of Arts at the University of California, Berkeley, further honing her research skills. Her early intellectual development was influenced by the vibrant cultural and political atmosphere of the San Francisco Bay Area and the rigorous academic traditions of the Ivy League.

Career

Megan Marshall's career is distinguished by her commitment to recovering and narrating the lives of historically significant women. She began her professional life working in publishing and journalism in Boston, before dedicating herself fully to biographical writing and academia. Her first major work, a triple biography of The Peabody Sisters, established her signature method of weaving personal correspondence and historical documents into compelling narrative. She has served as a professor in the Writing, Literature and Publishing department at Emerson College and has taught biography and nonfiction writing at the Harvard University Extension School and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Marshall is also a frequent contributor to publications like The New Yorker and The Atlantic, and has been involved with the Society of American Historians.

Awards and honors

Megan Marshall's work has been recognized with some of the most prestigious awards in historical writing and biography. Her book The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and won the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 2014 for Margaret Fuller: A New American Life. That same work also earned her the Massachusetts Book Award and the Mark Lynton History Prize, administered by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. She has been a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and the New York Public Library's Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.

Published works

Megan Marshall is the author of three major biographical works, each focusing on a pivotal female intellectual or artist. Her debut, The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism (2005), explores the lives of Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, and Sophia Amelia Peabody Hawthorne and their influence on the Transcendentalist movement. This was followed by Margaret Fuller: A New American Life (2013), a portrait of the groundbreaking journalist and critic associated with The Dial and the New-York Tribune. Her third biography, Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast (2017), examines the life and poetry of the renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, delving into her time in Key West, Brazil, and her connections to figures like Robert Lowell and Marianne Moore.

Personal life

Megan Marshall resides in Belmont, Massachusetts, and has been actively involved in the literary and historical community of New England. She is married to Peter Davison, a noted poet and editor at The Atlantic Monthly Press, with whom she shares a deep engagement with the literary world. Her personal and professional life is deeply intertwined with the archival research and storytelling that define her celebrated biographies, often involving extensive work with collections at institutions like the Houghton Library and the Massachusetts Historical Society. Category:American biographers Category:American historians Category:Pulitzer Prize winners Category:Harvard University alumni Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:1954 births Category:Living people