A Story Larger than My Own

In 1955, Maxine Kumin submitted a poem to the Saturday Evening Post. “ Lines on a Half-Painted House ” made it into the magazine—but not before Kumin was asked to produce, via her husband’s employer, verification that the poem was her original work. Kumin, who went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, was part of a groundbreaking generation of women writers who came of age during the midcentury feminist movement. By challenging the status quo and ultimately finding success for themselves, th