And a Poet Shall Brand Them

Mongoose Civique. Pastelogram. Utopian Turtletop. These were but a few of Marianne Moore‘s inspired suggestions to the Ford Motor Company when, in 1955, an executive approached the poet to suggest some names for its latest product line. Writer Danny Heitman recounted the story in a recent New York Times op-ed piece that suggests a literary bail-out for the beleaguered auto industry.

Moore apparently had no qualms about enlisting her muse in the service of the automotive industry. She was also willing to embrace the risks of the marketplace, agreeing to be paid only if she came up with a winning name. As Moore’s biographer Charles Molesworth points out, she “had always enjoyed the language of advertisement, delighting in its inventiveness and ebullience, and even relating it to the poetics of praise.”

Alas, her slate of creative suggestions—which also included “the Ford Silver Sword,” “Intelligent Bullet,” “Ford Fabergé,” “Anticipator,” and “Astranaut,”—were rejected in favor of the name of Henry Ford‘s late son, Edsel.

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