Georgie Starbuck Galbraith

Georgie Starbuck Galbraith (1909–1980) was a prolific writer of light verse, and briefly a writer of song lyrics, who lived in Bakersfield, California.

From left to right: an illustration of an elderly, bearded man resting on a staff and with a sash saying '1940', aan ilustration of a baby with a sash saying '1941', and a photograph of a confident-looking young lady
Within a 1 January 1941 illustration of "past" encouraging "future", The Bakersfield Californian chose Galbraith to personify the Kern county of the day.[n 1]

Life

Georgie Starbuck Galbraith was born on 15 December 1909 in Brownington, Missouri. Her parents were Harry and Eathel (née Munson) Starbuck.[1] The family moved to California when Georgie was three months old, and in 1916 moved within California from Goshen to Bakersfield, where she remained.[2] She attended Washington Grammar School, Kern County High School,[2] and, for two years, Bakersfield College.[1]

The teenage Starbuck acted in a number of plays. A newspaper review of a performance for 2,000 of The Biblical Story of Esther, said that Georgia Starbuck,[n 2] playing Haman's wife, "proved an actress of charm, giving her highly dramatic moments an expression of reality where the slightest amateur touch would have changed the intense to the theatric".[3] She played the title role in a school production of the play The Brat.[4] While at Bakersfield College, she acted in Treasure Island[5] and Little Old New York.[6][n 3]

Georgie Starbuck married Howard John (Jack) Galbraith, who was captured at Bataan and taken by the ship Ōryoku Maru to Olongapo (where it was bombed and sunk) and by other ships to Moji, but who survived the ordeal and was repatriated.[7][8] The couple were later divorced.[1][n 4]

Galbraith died on 25 February 1980, in Bakersfield, California.[1]

Career

Galbraith started writing in 1938; and after three years, started submitting her work for publication.[9]

Galbraith was described as "one of the few poets who could make a living at her craft [which she managed] by writing under more than 125 pseudonyms".[10] These included Anne Patrice, Tracy Ellington, Penny Pennington, and Stuart Pennington.[2]

Magazines she contributed to (as Georgie Starbuck Galbraith) include Adam;[2] The American Legion Magazine;[11] Atlantic Monthly,[2][12][13] 1946–1961;[14] Better Homes and Gardens, 1947–1958;[14] College Humor;[15] Good Housekeeping,[12] 1943–1960;[14] Judge;[2] Knight;[2] Ladies' Home Journal;[2][12][15] Look;[16] McCall's,[2] 1960–1973;[14] Reader's Digest, 1951–1956;[14] The Saturday Evening Post,[2][12] 1943–1961;[14] Saturday Review,[2][12] 1946–1955;[14] and Woman's Home Companion;[15] as well as occasionally to Cosmopolitan,[17] Country Gentleman,[18] Harper's Magazine[19] and Prairie Schooner.[20]

One volume of Galbraith's verse was published: Have One on Me (1963).[n 5] The reviewer for The Kansas City Times recommended it as a surprise Christmas present;[9] the reviewer for the Fort Lauderdale News as "great guest room reading";[12] and that for The Buffalo News as "a volume of pure pleasure".[21] It got a lukewarm review from Kirkus Reviews:

Mrs. Galbraith takes a good-natured cardboard sword to urban and suburban life. [. . . This is a] cheerful melange, whose mark is middling, and definitely not for the McGinley set.[22]

Identifying "the battle of the sexes" as "that richest of mother lodes for the light verse writer out prospecting for subject matter", the poet Richard Armour named Galbraith as one of the women – together with Dorothy Parker, Phyllis McGinley, Margaret Fishback, and Ethel Jacobson – who had "done even better" at this than had the men.[23]

Galbraith also wrote song lyrics, from 1954 to 1955 working with the composer Ralph Yaw.[15][24]

Notes
  1. The original caption: "Symbolizing Kern county, standing on the threshold of a new year, Mrs. Georgie Galbraith (present) walks forward with the newborn 1941 (future), as enfeebled 1940 (past) gives new year an encouraging pat on back." The Bakersfield Californian, 1 January 1941, p. 33.
  2. In Bakersfield newspapers of the 1920s, there are references to both "Georgia Starbuck" and "Georgie Starbuck" in dramatic productions. Presumably they refer to a single person.
  3. Bakersfield Morning Echo credits not Georgie but Georgia Starbuck. However, the miniature description of Georgie Starbuck Galbraith within Roxanne Starbuck, "Impressive accomplishments", The Bakersfield College Archives Newsletter, Fall 2017. pp. 6–7, credits her with these performances.
  4. In 1963, Georgie Starbuck Galbraith described herself as living "alone in an amiable clutter of books, manuscripts, pictures and junk". Virginia Scott Miner, "It fits the season with a merry mood", The Kansas City Times, 18 December 1963, p. 32. Here at Newspapers.com.
  5. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1963. With drawings by Vahan Shirvanian. OCLC 1396188.

References
  1. "Ethel Jacobson"; in Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors (Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale, 2003). Gale in Context: Biography (accessed January 30, 2023).
  2. "Georgie Galbraith is poet of stature", The Bakersfield Californian, 21 May 1966, pp. 12A, 3B. Via Newspaper Archive.
  3. "Esther pageant scores with 2,000 at Greek theatre here; is dramatic treat for public", Bakersfield Morning Echo, 12 September 1926, p. 2. Via Newspaper Archive.
  4. "Matinee audience finds 'The Brat' delightful play: To be repeated tonight; Georgie Starbuck, others please", Bakersfield Morning Echo, 21 May 1927, p. 6. Via Newspaper Archive.
  5. "Pipefuls by Jim Day", The Bakersfield Californian, 27 February 1948, p. 15, 21. Via Newspaper Archive.
  6. "'Little Old New York' is student body production", Bakersfield Morning Echo, 23 February 1928, p. 10. Via Newspaper Archive.
  7. "Capt. Galbraith, Bataan hero, liberated from Jap prison", The Bakersfield Californian, 14 September 1945, p. 9. Via Newspaper Archive.
  8. Mae Saunders, "Survivor describes 'hell ship'", The Bakersfield Californian, 14 December 1945, pp. 9, 15. Via Newspaper Archive.
  9. Virginia Scott Miner, "It fits the season with a merry mood", The Kansas City Times, 18 December 1963, section C. Here at Newspapers.com.
  10. Frederick A. Raborg, "The king is dead; long live the king"; in Stephen Blake Mettee, The Portable Writer's Conference: Your Guide to Getting Published, rev. ed. (Sanger, California, Quill Driver Books, 2007), p. 174. ISBN 978-1-884956-57-7.
  11. Within "Parting Shots"; for example, "Heartening Interview", within the July 1963 issue, p. 56.
  12. Edee Greene, "Poets rhyme fits season", Fort Lauderdale News, 30 December 1963, p. 31. Here at Newspapers.com.
  13. List of contributions, The Atlantic.
  14. James Carlton Starbuck, Starbucks All, 1635–1985: A Biographical-Genealogical Dictionary (Roswell, Georgia, WH Wolfe, 1984), p. 556. Here at the Internet Archive.
  15. "Pipefuls by Jim Day", The Bakersfield Californian, 17 March 1955, p. 21. Via Newspaper Archive.
  16. Within "Look on the Light Side", ed. J. M. Flagler; for example, "All the Comforts", within 4 October 1966 issue, p. 98.
  17. "No Lasting Impression", February 1952 issue, p. 103.
  18. "Excessively Handy Man", October 1952 issue, p. 121. Via Internet Archive.
  19. "Salute", June 1951 issue.
  20. "After the Quarrel", Prairie Schooner vol. 19, no. 2 (Summer 1945), p. 153. JSTOR 40623648.
  21. "A pantry poet strikes back at domestic life", The Buffalo News, 26 October 1963, p. 22. Here at Newspapers.com.
  22. Review of Have One on Me, Kirkus Reviews, 1 October 1963. Accessed 1 February 2023.
  23. Richard Armour, Writing Light Verse and Prose Humor (Boston: Writer, 1971), p. 28. ISBN 0-87116-064-1.
  24. Leonard Feather, The Encyclopedia of Jazz, rev. ed. (New York: Bonanza, 1962), s.v. "Yaw, Ralph Percy", pp. 470–471.
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