erhaps the most famous of the “literary Lovemans,” Robert Loveman (1864-1923) was one of America’s best-known poets and lyricists during his lifetime. He is said to have been born in Cleveland, though no record of his birth apparently exists there. A grandson of David and Rosa Loveman, he was born to their son David Reuben Loveman (1827-1898) and Ernestine Schwartz (1837-1921). Robert grew up in Dalton, Georgia and studied law at the University of Alabama. He was admitted to the bar but did not practice law. Instead, he gravitated toward reading and writing. A prolific author, he is remembered primarily for two poems:

Robert traveled and lectured extensively. He never married and lived with his mother until her death in 1921. His publications include Poems, 1889; Poems, 1893; Poems, 1897; A Book of Verses, 1900; The Gates of Silence, 1903; Songs from a Georgia Garden, 1905; The Blushful South and Hippocrene, 1909; On the Way to Willowdale, 1912; Sonnets of the Strife, 1917 and Verses, 1929. He also contributed to Harper's Atlantic Monthly, the Ladies Home Journal and other magazines.

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my Loveman (1881-1955), daughter of cotton merchant Adolph P. Loveman (1843-1935) and Adassa Heilprin (1847-1921), came by her love of literature naturally. Her maternal grandfather was Michael Heilprin (1823-1888), a writer and biblical scholar conversant in a dozen languages who left his native Poland for Hungary and embraced the Hungarian revolution. Heilprin worked for a time as secretary to Louis Kossuth. Amy's father was not only a businessman but a book lover; he reportedly spoke six languages himself.

A lifelong New York resident, Amy graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard College in 1901. She went to work for her uncle, Louis Heilprin on revision of the New International Encyclopaedia and Lippincott's Pronouncing Gazetteer of the World. She soon switched to the New York Post, where she became a book reviewer and eventually associate editor of the literary review. In 1924, she resigned to accept a post at the new Saturday Review of Literature. She was an associate editor in its first issue, later adding the title of poetry editor.