The Second Book of Modern Verse Part 42

Mr. Ficke has published many books of verse of which the best-known are "The Earth Pa.s.sion", 1908; "Sonnets of a Portrait Painter", 1914; "The Man on the Hilltop", 1915; "An April Elegy", 1917. Mr. Ficke has also written two volumes upon "j.a.panese Painting" and "j.a.panese Prints", in part the outcome of a trip to j.a.pan, taken in company with his friend Witter Bynner. As mentioned in the sketch of Mr. Bynner, Mr. Ficke was a.s.sociated with him in writing the volume, "Spectra".

Fisher, Mahlon Leonard. [1874-?] (2) Born in Williamsport, Pa., July 20, 1874. Educated in private study and in the schools of his native city. Mr. Fisher took up architecture and practiced this profession for seventeen years, but although he still retains connection with it in a consulting capacity, he has given up its active practice to be the publisher and editor of a small magazine called 'The Sonnet', which he founded. Mr. Fisher has written some of the finest sonnets that have appeared in America in recent years and has brought out the first collection of them under the t.i.tle, "Sonnets: A First Series", 1918.

Fletcher, John Gould. [1886-1950] (2) Born at Little Rock, Ark., Jan. 3, 1886. He was educated in the public schools of Little Rock, in Phillips Academy, Andover, and at Harvard University, but becoming restive under the formal curriculum did not stay to take his degree, but went instead to Europe where he might find an atmosphere more in harmony with his tastes and interests.

Italy first attracted him and he remained there for several years, but went in May of 1909 to London where he has spent most of the time since that date. In 1913 he published five small books of verse, all of which are now out of print, but it was not until the publication of "Irradiations -- Sand and Spray" in America in 1915 that his true poetic quality was evident. In the same year several poems of his appeared in "Some Imagist Poets", the first joint collection of the Imagist group, which embraced the work of Amy Lowell, Richard Aldington, "H. D.", F. S. Flint, D. H. Lawrence, and Mr. Fletcher himself. This allied him with the Imagist movement, though his work was too individual to conform to any school.

The war drove Mr. Fletcher back to America where he remained two years, and in April of 1916 he published in this country "Goblins and PaG.o.das"; the following month he returned to England and married Miss Florence Emily Arbuthnot. He continues to make England his home and brought out there his latest volume, "The Tree of Life".

[John Gould Fletcher won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1939 for "Selected Poems". -- A. L., 1998.]

Foster, Jeanne Robert. [1879-1970] (1) Born in the Adirondack Mountains in the town of Johnsburg, N.Y., of English and French stock. Attended the schools of the neighborhood and at the age of sixteen began teaching. Two years later she came to New York, studied at the Stanhope-Wheatcroft Dramatic School, and played upon the stage for one year. Not satisfied with this life, however, she went to Boston, took special courses in the Radcliffe-Harvard Extension and at Boston University, and began writing for the press. Married Matlock Foster and came to New York in 1911 where she became a.s.sociated with the 'Review of Reviews' as literary editor, holding this position until 1919. Mrs. Foster has published two books of verse, "Wild Apples" and "Neighbors of Yesterday", both 1916. In the latter she writes, with much narrative skill, of the isolated mountain folk whom she knew in her girlhood.

Frost, Robert. [1874-1963] (4) Born in San Francisco, March 26, 1875 [sic]. Studied at Dartmouth College and Harvard University from 1892 to 1899.

Married Miss Elinor M. White, of Lawrence, Ma.s.s., and went to live upon a farm at Derry, N.H., where he followed the occupation of farming from 1900 to 1905.

Finding it, however, scarcely adequate to the needs of his family, he began teaching English at the Pinkerton Academy at Derry and held this position until 1911 when he became a teacher of psychology in the State Normal School at Plymouth, N.H. In 1912 he took perhaps the most important step in his life up to that period, and with his wife and four young children went to England where he might find a more sympathetic atmosphere for creative work.

Most of the poems in "A Boy's Will", his earliest collection, were written prior to his residence in England, but few had been published, and the book was not finally issued in America until after the appearance of "North of Boston", the volume upon which his recognition was based.

This book, published first in England, and reprinted in America in 1914, was received with enthusiasm by the foremost English critics who recognized in it a note distinctively individual and distinctively American, and Mr. Frost came back to this country after three years of delightful and fruitful life in England, where he had enjoyed the close companionship of Masefield, Gibson, Abercrombie, and others of the English group -- to find his work widely known and appreciated.

Nothing finer nor more significant has come out of our poetic revival than Mr. Frost's work, which reflects the life of New England in its more isolated aspects, and interprets the spirit of the people with the keenest insight and the most sympathetic understanding.

In the way of form, Mr. Frost has also been a path-finder, building his poems primarily upon the rhythms of the speaking voice.

"North of Boston" was followed in 1916 by "A Mountain Interval", containing some beautiful lyric as well as narrative work.

[Robert Frost won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1924 for "New Hampshire", in 1931 for "Collected Poems", in 1937 for "A Further Range", and in 1943 for "A Witness Tree". -- A. L., 1998.]

Garrison, Theodosia (Mrs. Frederick J. Faulks). [1874-1944] (1) Born at Newark, N.J. Educated at private schools in New York.

Mrs. Garrison was for several years a constant contributor to the magazines, but has written less of late. Her volumes of verse are: "Joy o' Life", 1908, "The Earth Cry", 1910, and "The Dreamers", 1917.

Giltinan, Caroline. [1884-?] (1) Born in Philadelphia, Pa. Educated in the public schools of that city and at the University of Pennsylvania. Miss Giltinan served very conspicuously abroad during the World War, as an army nurse, and later in an important position in the Department of Sick and Wounded.

She is the author of "The Divine Image", 1917.

Griffith, William. [1876-1936] (2) Born Memphis, Mo., Feb. 15, 1876. Educated in public schools.

Married Florence Vernon, of Brooklyn, in 1909. Mr. Griffith has had an active career in the newspaper profession, having been on the staff of several of the New York papers, managing editor of 'Hampton's Magazine', 1906-10; editor, 'McCall's Magazine', 1911-12; editorial director of the 'National Sunday Magazine', a large newspaper syndicate, 1912-16; since then a.s.sociate editor of 'Current Opinion'. His best-known books of verse are: "City Views and Visions", 1911; "Loves and Losses of Pierrot", 1916; "City Pastorals", 1918; "The House of the Sphinx and Other Poems", 1918.

Guiterman, Arthur. [1871-1943] (2) Born, of American parentage, at Vienna, Austria, Nov. 20, 1871.

Graduated at the College of the City of New York in 1891.

Married Vida Lindo, of New York, 1909. Mr. Guiterman did editorial work on the 'Woman's Home Companion' and the 'Literary Digest' from 1891 to 1906, and published several books of verse, now out of print, before doing those which contain his representative work: "The Laughing Muse", 1915; "The Mirthful Lyre", 1917; and "Ballads of Old New York", 1920. While Mr. Guiterman is widely known as a humorous poet, he is also an accomplished poet in other moods.

"H. D." (Hilda Doolittle). [1886-1961] (2) Born at Bethlehem, Pa., Sept. 10, 1886. Educated at the Gordon School and the Friends' Central School of Philadelphia and at Bryn Mawr College.

Miss Doolittle went to Europe in 1911 and, after a tour of the Continent, settled down in London, where she was soon caught into the current of the poetic movement then shaping itself under the innovating genius of Ezra Pound and a little band of his fellow poets.

Under this stimulus Miss Doolittle began to write those brief, sharply carved poems, purely Greek in their chast.i.ty and mood, of which the first group appeared in 'Poetry' for Jan., 1913, under the name of "H. D. -- Imagist". Among the London poets interested in experiments with new forms was Richard Aldington, whose own inspiration came largely from the Greek, and in October of 1913 he and Miss Doolittle were married and the work of both appeared in the little volume, "Des Imagistes", published in New York in April, 1914.

This was the first grouping of the Imagist school, whose work, without that of Ezra Pound, its founder, who withdrew from the movement, continued for several years to appear in America under the t.i.tle of "Some Imagist Poets". Since then one volume of "H. D.'s" own work has been published, "Sea Garden", London and Boston, 1917.

For the finest and most comprehensive study of "H. D.'s" work see "Tendencies in Modern American Poetry", by Amy Lowell, 1917.

Hagedorn, Hermann. [1882-1964] (2) Born in New York City, July 18, 1882. Educated at Harvard University and University of Berlin. Served as Instructor at Harvard from 1909 to 1911.

Married Dorothy Oakley of Englewood, N.J., 1908. Mr. Hagedorn is the author of "The Silver Blade, a Play in Verse", 1907; "The Woman of Corinth", 1908; "A Troop of the Guard", 1909; "Poems and Ballads", 1911; "The Great Maze and the Heart of Youth", 1916; and "Hymn of Free Peoples Triumphant", 1918. Mr. Hagedorn is an ardent American and organized "The Vigilantes", a body of writers to do patriotic work with the pen during the World War.

Edited "Fifes and Drums", a collection of war poetry, 1917.

Harding, Ruth Guthrie. [1882-?] (1) Born at Tunkhannock, Pa., Aug. 20, 1882. Educated at Wyoming Seminary, Kingston, Pa., and at Bucknell University. Married John Ward Harding of Pateson, N.J., Oct. 1901. Mrs. Harding is the author of "A Lark Went Singing", 1916.

Hoyt, Helen. [1887-1972] (1) Born at Norwalk, Conn. Educated at Barnard College.

Has been connected with 'Poetry', of Chicago, as a.s.sociate editor.

Miss Hoyt has contributed to the best magazines for several years, but has not, as yet, published a volume of verse.

Johns, Orrick. [1887-1946] (3) Born in St. Louis, Mo., in 1887. Educated at the University of Missouri and at Washington University in St. Louis. Was a.s.sociated for a short time with 'Reedy's Mirror'. In 1912 he received the first prize, of $500, for a poem ent.i.tled "Second Avenue", contributed to the contest of "The Lyric Year" and afterwards published in that volume.

Since then Mr. Johns has written "Asphalt", 1917, which contains his charming group of poems, "Country Rhymes", the best of his lyric work.

Jones, Thomas S., Jr. [1882-1932] (3) Born at Boonville, N.Y., Nov. 6, 1882. Graduated at Cornell University in 1904. He was on the dramatic staff of the 'New York Times'

from 1904 to 1907, and a.s.sociate editor of 'The Pathfinder' in 1911.

His published volumes are: "Path of Dreams", 1904; "From Quiet Valleys", 1907; "Interludes", 1908; "Ave Atque Vale" (In Memoriam Arthur Upson), 1909; "The Voice in the Silence", with a Foreword by James Lane Allen, 1911; and "The Rose-Jar", originally published in 1906, but taken over in 1915 by Thomas B. Mosher and made the initial volume of "Lyra Americana", his first series of American poetry. Mr. Mosher has also added "The Voice in the Silence" to this series. Mr. Jones is a poet of rare delicacy and fineness whose work has gathered to itself a discriminating group of readers.

Kemp, Harry. [1883-1960] (1) Born in Youngstown, Ohio, Dec. 15, 1883, but came East in his childhood.

Mr. Kemp has had a most romantic and picturesque career.

He ran away from High School to go to sea, shipping first to Australia.

From there he went to China, and eventually returned to America via California. Coming East again, he prepared for college at Mt. Hermon school, N.J., and entered the University of Kansas, where he remained until his graduation in his twenty-sixth year. Since then, with the exception of a winter in London, he has lived in New York, where he is a.s.sociated with the Greenwich Village group of dramatic folk, both playwrights and actors. Mr. Kemp has written many brief dramas and produced them with his own company at a small theater in New York, but it is in poetry that he has done his best work thus far.

He has the true lyric quality, as shown in his two volumes, "Poems", and "The Pa.s.sing G.o.d", 1919.

Kilmer, Aline (Mrs. Joyce Kilmer). [1888-1941] (3) Born Norfolk, Va. Daughter of the poet Ada Foster Murray.

Educated in public schools and at the Vail-Deane School of Elizabeth, N.J.

Married in 1908 to Joyce Kilmer, who met death in France during the World War.

Mrs. Kilmer is the author of "Candles that Burn", 1919, which contains some of the sincerest and most moving lyric poetry that has come out of our present revival.

Kilmer, Joyce. [1886-1918] (4) Born at New Brunswick, N.J., Dec. 6, 1886. Educated at Columbia University.

After a short period of teaching he became a.s.sociated with the Funk and Wagnalls Company, where he remained from 1909 to 1912 when he a.s.sumed the position of literary editor of 'The Churchman'.

His next step was to a.s.sociate himself with the staff of the 'New York Times', where he became a well-known feature writer, doing in particular a series of interviews with literary people which were later incorporated into a book. During this period he contributed poetry to the leading magazines and published several collections, of which the first, "A Summer of Love", was published in 1911 and was followed by "Trees, and Other Poems", 1914, and "Main Street and Other Poems", 1917.

His work, human in mood, mellow in quality, full of tenderness and reverence for the old sanct.i.ties, soon drew to itself a large audience, an audience greatly enhanced by the poet's personal contacts.

His kindly and whimsical humor, his charm of personality, his enthusiasm and sympathy, won for him a large group of friends and radiated to the wider group who became his readers.

In 1908 he married Aline Murray, herself a poet, and several children were born to them, celebrated in the poems of both parents.

Upon America's entry into the World War, Joyce Kilmer enlisted, and after a short period of training was sent to France with the 165th Infantry, formerly the "Fighting 69th", a regiment of Irish blood and of the Catholic religion, to which he had himself become an adherent. He was made a sergeant and served with conspicuous gallantry, so much so, indeed, that it was said of him by the chaplain of the regiment that he "had a romantic pa.s.sion for death in battle."

He was promoted to the Intelligence Department of the service where the personal risk was the greatest, and was killed in action at the battle of the Ourcq, July 30, 1918. He was buried within sound of the river. Since his death two volumes containing his complete work in prose and verse, his letters from abroad, and an excellent memoir written by his friend, Robert Holliday, have been published and will do much to perpetuate the memory of this beloved soldier-poet.

Kreymborg, Alfred. [1883-1966] (2) Born in New York City and educated in the public schools of New York.

Mr. Kreymborg was the founder and editor of a little magazine called 'Others', which became the organ of a group of insurgent poets.

Also under the t.i.tle of "Others", he has issued at intervals selections from the work of these poets, forming a novel and interesting anthology.

In addition to writing poetry which he has published in a collection called "Mushrooms", 1917, Mr. Kreymborg is the author of several brief poetic plays which he presents as "Poem-Mimes", performed by puppets.

Lee, Agnes (Mrs. Otto Freer). [1868-1939] (2) Born in Chicago, Ill. Educated in Switzerland. Married, 2d, Otto Freer, 1911. Author of "The Round Rabbit", 1898; "The Border of the Lake", 1910; "The Sharing", 1914; translator of the poems of Theophile Gautier, and of "The Gates of Childhood", by Fernand Gregh. A contributor of poems to the leading magazines, particularly 'Poetry', of Chicago.

Lee, Muna. [1895-1965] (1) Miss Lee spent her early life in Oklahoma, and first came into notice as a poet by gaining a prize given by 'Poetry', of Chicago, for the best lyric verse by a young writer. She afterward came to New York and married Luis Marin, of South America. Is at present living in Porto Rico; has not, as yet, published a volume of poetry.

Ledoux, Louis V. [1880-1948] (3) Born in New York City, June 6, 1880. Educated at Columbia University where he graduated in 1902. He is a poet who writes chiefly upon Greek themes and is the author of "Songs from the Silent Land", 1905; "The Soul's Progress", 1907; "Yzdra: A Poetic Drama", 1909; "The Shadow of Aetna", 1914; "The Story of Eleusis: A Lyrical Drama", 1916.

Leonard, William Ellery. [1876-1944] (2) Born at Plainfield, N.J., Jan. 25, 1876. A.B. Boston University, 1898; A.M. Harvard, 1899. Fellow of Boston University in philology and literature, 1900; student University of Gottingen, 1901; University of Bonn, 1902; fellow of Columbia University, 1902-03; Ph.D. Columbia, 1904.

After receiving these various degrees, Mr. Leonard began his work as Instructor of Latin at Boston University, going from there to the University of Wisconsin where he has remained continuously since 1906, as a.s.sistant Professor of English. He has written extensively on cla.s.sic subjects, in addition to his work in poetry, and has also published volumes in the field of literary criticism.

His best-known works are: "Byron and Byronism in America", 1905; "Sonnets and Poems", 1906; "The Fragments of Empedocles", 1908; "The Poet of Galilee", 1909; "The Vaunt of Man", 1912; "Glory of the Morning", a play, 1912; "Aesop and Hyssop", 1913.

Mr. Leonard has also made a remarkable blank-verse translation of Lucretius, which was published in 1916, and has translated from the Greek and the German.

Lindsay, Vachel. [1879-1931] (4) Born in Springfield, Ill., Nov. 10, 1879. Educated at Hiram College, Ohio.

His first intention was to enter the field of art and he became a student at the Art Inst.i.tute of Chicago where he remained from 1900 to 1903, continuing his work at the New York School of Art, 1904-05, under the personal instruction of Wm. Chase and Robert Henri.

For a time after his technical study, he lectured upon art in its practical relation to the community, and returning to his home in Springfield, Ill., issued what might be termed his manifesto in the shape of "The Village Magazine", divided about equally between prose articles pertaining to the beautifying of his native city, and poems, ill.u.s.trated by his own drawings. Both the verse and drawings showed a delightful imagination; the poetry in particular, unlike the more elaborate technique of his later work, had a Blake-like simplicity. Soon after the publication of "The Village Magazine", Mr. Lindsay, taking as scrip for the journey, "Rhymes to be Traded for Bread", made a pilgrimage on foot through several Western States, going as far afield as New Mexico.

The story of this journey is given in his volume, "Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty", 1916. Mr. Lindsay had taken an earlier journey on foot, from Jacksonville, Fla., to Springfield, Ill., which he has recorded in "A Handy Guide for Beggars", also 1916.

This is much the finer volume of the two and should take its place with the permanent literature of vagabondage. In 1913 Mr. Lindsay came into wide notice by his poem, "General William Booth Enters into Heaven", which became the t.i.tle poem of his first volume of verse, published in 1913.

This was followed by "The Congo", 1914; "The Chinese Nightingale", 1917; and "Golden Whales of California", 1920. He based all his later work upon the idea of poetry as a spoken art and developed it along the line of rhythm.

His work is unique, he adhered to no "school", nor has he found imitators.