In the 1970’s, doctoral student Jane Vallier made a decision that would serve as a precursor for her interest as a writer more than 20 years later.

“I had almost decided to write my dissertation on Emily Dickinson, but I realized that something like 60 dissertations a year were being written on Dickinson. Why couldn’t I find one of her contemporaries? Surely, there were other women poets,” Vallier said.

Vallier remembered the country-school oral poetry, full of rhythm and music, that her mother had recited to her. She decided to study the life of one of her mother’s old favorites, Celia Thaxter.

Thaxter was an eco-feminist and a founder of the Audobon Society, the first bird conservation group in America. A musician and an artist, as well as a poet and a writer, she gave inspiration and support to a circle of creative friends, including Sarah Orne Jewett, John Greenleaf Whittier, Annie Fields, Harriet Beecher Stowe, the painter Childe Hassam and many others.

Now an adjunct assistant professor of Speech Communication at Iowa State, Vallier believes Thaxter has been unfairly neglected. “Thaxter’s the reason Emily Dickinson didn’t really get published in her lifetime,” Vallier said. “Thaxter was the most widely published woman poet in the last half of the 19th century. She died in 1894 and after that was pretty much lost to literary history.”

Vallier has embarked on a one-woman mission to reintroduce Thaxter to the American public through words, music and film. Her efforts are in the vanguard of a national revival of Thaxter’s works.

Vallier’s sold-out 1982 biography of Thaxter, Poet on Demand, stimulated many scholarly studies and discussions that are included in a 1994 second edition of her book. Vallier expects it to go into a third edition soon.

Her most recent book, The Poems of Celia Thaxter, with an introduction by Vallier, was published in June 1996. “It is the first time most of her poetic works have been published since her death,” Vallier said.

She is also aiding in a revival of Thaxter’s musical lyrics and songs. “What Thaxter was writing in the 19th century is found today in popular music,” Vallier said.

“When she was writing there was no recording industry, no technology. People turned to fireside poets like Thaxter, Longfellow and James Russell Lowell. So that’s why she is worth preserving.” Many of Thaxter’s lyrics are being recorded, published and performed, including a performance by The Maine Composers Forum.

Vallier is interested in taking Thaxter’s life story to the silver screen. “I’m working on a screenplay of Thaxter’s unconventional life,” Vallier said. “Literally, she was sold by her father when she was 12 years old to a wealthy Boston actor, and married at 16. She was heroic in her treatment, particularly of her oldest son, who was brain damaged at birth.”

The family separated and Thaxter’s husband refused to support her and their three sons. “She had to sell a poem to buy new shoes, and a short story to buy a new stove,” Vallier said. In spite of Thaxter’s personal problems, Vallier said Thaxter was considered by women like Sarah Orne Jewett and Mary Wilkins Freeman to be a genius.

“Perhaps, I’ll have it made into a movie,” Vallier said. “I’ve been working on this for about three years. I just came back from Hollywood where I was consulting several screen writers. I’m doing it independently so the chances are one in a million.”

Vallier has been the featured speaker at several national conferences on Thaxter including the 1996 Sarah Orne Jewett Centennial Conference in Maine and the Star Island Writers Workshop in New Hampshire. In April, she will speak at a re-creation of Thaxter’s gardens in Garland, Texas.

“Jane Vallier is the foremost national authority on Celia Thaxter,” said Professor Martha A. Atkins, a colleague of Vallier’s in the Communication Department. Atkins said that Vallier has met with many of Thaxter’s descendants, and has examined original notes, diaries and remembrances.

“She is a well-respected teacher and supportive friend,” Atkins said.

Vallier’s writings have stimulated interest in many areas. “The fun part of this is that other researchers and writers in art, music and literature have been able to build on the original Poet on Demand.” Vallier strives to ensure that Thaxter takes her rightful place in feminist literary history. After all, Emily Dickinson is already there.