Angelica Gibbs

Angelica Gibbs (1908 – January 10, 1955) was an American writer known for her contributions to short stories and magazine publications, particularly The New Yorker. She was born in Baltimore, Maryland.

Her family background includes her parents, Lucius Tuckerman Gibbs and Angelica Singleton Duer. She had an older brother, Oliver Wolcott Gibbs, who served as an editor and theatre critic for The New Yorker. On her mother's side, Gibbs was a descendant of President Martin Van Buren and First Lady Hannah Hoes Van Buren, making her a great-great-granddaughter of the eighth U.S. president.

Gibbs completed her higher education at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. During her time at Vassar, she served as the editor of "Vassar Poetry" in 1930, overseeing a selection of poems submitted by students, along with three other seniors.

In her personal life, Gibbs was married to Robert Elliot Canfield, and together they had two children, Sarah Duer Canfield and David E. Canfield.

Her published works include her first novel, "Murder Between Drinks," a mystery fiction published in 1932. In 1944, she contributed to the anthology "New York Murders," which involved multiple authors. A review published in The New Yorker on November 4, 1944, noted her contribution to the collection, highlighting her storytelling of the Wilkins affair from 1919 as "fine."

Gibbs authored the short story "The Test," which was first published in The New Yorker on June 15, 1940. The story centers on Marian, a young African-American woman taking her driver's test for the second time. It addresses themes of racial and sexual discrimination, depicting Marian's experiences with an unkind inspector and her exclamation, "Damn you!" after being failed despite her driving ability.

Her engagement with The New Yorker began in 1931, with her submitting fiction and various contributions to sections such as "Onward & Upward," "The Talk of the Town," and book and theater reviews. Over her twenty-three-year association with the magazine, she produced numerous works, including stories like "To Live Dangerously" (1931), "Her Mother was a Singleton" (1931), "The H.J. Winninger Girl" (1933), and "On Wings of Peace" (1937). Her later contributions include stories and profiles of various topics, notably in her "PROFILES" series, which appeared from 1946 to 1953.

Angelica Gibbs died on January 10, 1955.