View source for Vi Gale

{{short description|American poet}}
{{Use American English|date=August 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Vi Gale
| birth_name         = Viola Håkansson
| birth_date         = {{Birth year|1917}}
| birth_place        = Noret, [[Dalarna County]], Sweden
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|2007|1917}}
| death_place        = [[Portland, Oregon]], United States
| citizenship        = United States
| education          = [[Clatskanie High School]]
| alma_mater         = {{Plainlist|
* [[University of Colorado]]
* [[Portland State University]]
* [[Lewis & Clark College]]
* [[University of Oregon]]
}}
| occupation         = {{Plainlist|
* Poet
* Publisher
}}
| spouse             = {{marriage|Jim Gale|1942}}
}}
'''Viola M. Gale''' ({{Nee}} Håkansson; 1917–2007) was a Swedish-born American poet and publisher, who worked in the United States state of [[Oregon]]. She began writing poems and short stories that were published in minor magazines and reviews in the 1950s. Gale's first book was published in 1959, and released five more throughout her life. In 1974, she established the small printing house Prescott Street Press in [[Portland, Oregon|Portland]] to promote unknown authors and produce well-designed affordable books. One of Gale's works was selected by the [[Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission]] to be one of 100 Oregon books from 1800 to 2000 that "best representing the state's literary heritage" in 2003.
==Early life==
Gale was born Viola Håkansson in 1917,<ref name="GaleEntry">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Vi Gale|url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000034934/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=GPS&xid=c25ca300|encyclopedia=Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors|year=2014|accessdate=August 9, 2020|via=Gale In Context: Biography|url-access=subscription|archive-date=December 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201213074858/https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&u=wikipedia&id=GALE{{!}}H1000034934&v=2.1&it=r&sid=GPS&asid=c25ca300|url-status=live}}</ref> in a rural village called Noret along Central Sweden's [[Västerdal River]] in [[Dalarna County]].<ref name="IntroGale">{{cite web|last=Nordström|first=Lars|title=Introduction to Vi Gale: The Immigrant Story|url=http://www.swedishrootsinoregon.org/publications/Booklets/about_gale.htm|publisher=Swedish Roots in Oregon|year=2001|accessdate=August 9, 2020|url-status=live|archive-date=December 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201213074942/http://www.swedishrootsinoregon.org/publications/Booklets/about_gale.htm}}</ref><ref name=OregonEncyclopedia>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Nordström|first=Lars|title=Vi Gale (1917–2007)|url=https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/_vi_gale_1917_2007_/|encyclopedia=[[Oregon Encyclopedia]]|date=March 17, 2018|accessdate=August 9, 2020|url-status=live|archive-date=August 6, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806195255/https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/_vi_gale_1917_2007_/}}</ref> She was the daughter of Erland G. Håkansson and Maria Håkansson.<ref name="GaleEntry" /><ref name="GaleArchives">{{cite web|title=Vi Gale Collection, 1953–2007|url=http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv57040/pdf|publisher=[[Orbis Cascade Alliance]]|accessdate=August 9, 2020|url-status=live|archive-date=December 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201213074846/http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv57040/pdf}}</ref> Gale had one brother.<ref name="IntroGale" /> The family sold their belongings and moved to the United States in the final year of mass immigration from Sweden in 1923,<ref name="IntroGale" /><ref name="GaleArchives" /> when Gale was six years old.<ref name=Oregon2008>{{cite news|last=E. Close|first=Barbara|title=Vi Gale Celebration|url=https://www.oregonlive.com/books/2008/02/vi_gale_celebration.html|work=[[The Oregonian]]|date=February 13, 2008|accessdate=August 9, 2020|url-status=live|archive-date=December 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201213074856/https://www.oregonlive.com/books/2008/02/vi_gale_celebration.html}}</ref> They came to the country via [[Ellis Island]], and settled in the Swedish community of [[Clatskanie, Oregon]],<ref name="IntroGale" /><ref name="Oregon2008" /> where her father worked as a wood logger for [[Simon Benson]].<ref name="GaleArchives" /> Following graduation from [[Clatskanie Middle/High School|Clatskanie High School]] in 1934,<ref name="OregonEncyclopedia" /><ref name="GaleArchives" /> she worked as the Clatskanie librarian,<ref name="OregonEncyclopedia" /> and sold bread.<ref name="GaleArchives" /> Gale left Clatskanie in 1940 and moved to [[Portland, Oregon|Portland]].<ref name=":0">{{cite web|last=Nordström|first=Lars|title=Excerpt from Vi Gale: The Immigrant Story Behind the Poetry|url=http://www.swedishrootsinoregon.org/publications/Booklets/excerpt_gale.htm|publisher=Swedish Roots in Oregon|year=2001|accessdate=August 9, 2020|url-status=live|archive-date=November 3, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201103204550/http://www.swedishrootsinoregon.org/publications/Booklets/excerpt_gale.htm}}</ref> She became an [[Citizenship of the United States|naturalized United States citizen]] that same year, and began to attend literature and writing courses at the [[University of Colorado]], [[Portland State University]], [[Lewis & Clark College]], and the [[University of Oregon]] in the late 1940s.<ref name="GaleEntry" /><ref name="OregonEncyclopedia" /><ref name="GaleArchives" />
==Career==
Following the end of [[World War II]], she found employment authoring product promotions and steadily started writing poems and short stories in the 1950s.<ref name="IntroGale" /><ref name="OregonEncyclopedia" /> Gale's work was published in minor magazines and reviews,<ref name=":0" /> and she won the Oregon Poetry Prize in 1954.<ref name="GaleEntry" /> In 1955, she met poet [[May Sarton]] at a writer's conference at the [[University of Colorado Boulder]], and was encouraged by Sarton to continue writing poetry.<ref name="GaleArchives" /><ref name=":0" /> Gale won the 1958 Swallow Press New Poetry Series Award.<ref name="GaleEntry" /> In 1959, she sent a poetry collection to publisher [[Alan Swallow]],<ref name="GaleArchives" /> who became her mentor and brought out her first book, ''Several Houses'', that year.<ref name="OregonEncyclopedia" /><ref name="Oregon2008" /> Gale's second book, ''Love Always'', followed six years later.<ref name="GaleEntry" /><ref name=":0" /> Throughout the 1960s, she additionally connected with contemporaneously Swedish poetry and read it.<ref name="OregonEncyclopedia" /> Gale began teaching as director of creative writing workshops at the [[YWCA|Young Women's Christian Association]] in 1962, was the writer-in-residence for [[Eastern Oregon University|Eastern Oregon College]] in 1968, and lectured at [[Clatsop Community College]] in 1969.<ref name="GaleEntry" />
She authored ''Nineteen Ing Poems'' in 1970, then ''Clouded Sea'' a year later, and ''Clouded Sea'' in 1974''.''<ref name="GaleEntry" /> In 1974, Gale established the small publishing house Prescott Street Press,<ref name="IntroGale" /><ref name="OregonEncyclopedia" /> to promote unknown authors and produce affordable books that were well-designed.<ref name="GaleArchives" /> The publishing house received initial support from grants by the [[National Endowment for the Arts]] and had national distribution and helped to begin the career of several writers.<ref name="OregonEncyclopedia" /> Her final writing of poems, ''Odd Flowers & Short-Eared Owls'', was self-published in 1984.<ref name="GaleEntry" /><ref name="SJApr12">{{cite news|last=Berry|first=Eleanor|title=Vi Gale left mark on poetry|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1002216085|work=[[Statesman Journal]]|date=April 8, 2012|accessdate=August 9, 2020|page=D3|via=[[ProQuest]]|url-access=subscription|archive-date=November 3, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201103204520/https://search.proquest.com/docview/1002216085|id={{ProQuest|1002216085}}|url-status=live}}</ref> Gale contributed to ''Colorado Quarterly'', ''December'', ''Kansas Magazine'', ''Midwest Quarterly Review'', ''Northwest Review'', ''Poetry Northwest'', ''Poetry (Chicago)'', ''Pacific Spectator'' among other publications. Her work was featured in the books ''Oregon Signatures'' in 1959, ''Golden Year: The Poetry Society of American Anthology'' in 1960, and ''NW Manuscript Poems'' in 1966.<ref name="OregonEncyclopedia" />
==Personal life==
Gale married Jim Gale in 1942.<ref name="OregonEncyclopedia" /> She died in 2007,<ref name="Oregon2008" /> having lived the whole of her adult life in Oregon and having never went back to Sweden.<ref name="OregonEncyclopedia" />
==Method and legacy==
The poems of Gale came from personal experiences and memories, with a few of them featuring Scandinavian recollections, and several displaying "a keen sense of place".<ref name="OregonEncyclopedia" /> She said she was highly encouraged by opening up American poetry by the [[Beat Generation]]. Through Gale's career, she wrote in a more experimental and relaxed away from "the slightly formal feel of the strict stanzaic patterns in her early work".<ref name="OregonEncyclopedia" />
Her work, ''Several Houses'', was selected as one of 100 Oregon books from 1800 to 2000 by the [[Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission]] as "best representing the state's literary heritage" in 2003.<ref name="GaleArchives" /><ref name="SJApr12" /> In February 2008, a celebration of the life and career of Gale took place in Portland and attended by several poets.<ref name="Oregon2008" /><ref name="SJApr12" /> The Lewis & Clark College Special Collections and Archives holds a collection relating to Gale. They include her biographical information, personal correspondence, photographs, poetry manuscripts, and teaching materials connected to her life and other materials about Prescott Street Press.<ref name="GaleArchives" />
==References==
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{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gale, Vi}}
[[Category:1917 births]]
[[Category:2007 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Dalarna County]]
[[Category:Writers from Portland, Oregon]]
[[Category:Poets from Oregon]]
[[Category:Swedish emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States]]
[[Category:University of Colorado alumni]]
[[Category:Portland State University alumni]]
[[Category:Lewis & Clark College alumni]]
[[Category:University of Oregon alumni]]
[[Category:Eastern Oregon University faculty]]
[[Category:Swedish women poets]]
[[Category:20th-century Swedish women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Swedish poets]]
[[Category:American women poets]]
[[Category:20th-century American women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American poets]]
[[Category:21st-century American poets]]
[[Category:Women book publishers (people)]]
[[Category:American book publishers (people)]]
[[Category:Swedish book publishers (people)]]
[[Category:American women academics]]