Author: Ruth Willard Merritt
Bio: Ruth Willard Merritt was one of four children of a Methodist minister. She moved with her family every few years, and grew up in several towns, mostly in North Carolina. She attended Trinity College (now Duke University), and in 1926 she began a five-year teaching term at a women's college in Brazil, now the Methodist University of Piracicaba. In 1930, she returned to the United States and continued to teach. In 1971, she retired from teaching and moved to Lexington NC. In 1979, she published her first book of poetry, *Gleanings, Near and Far*.