Across the Spectrum:The Interdisciplinary Life and Letters of John G. Neihardt (‘Flaming Rainbow’)

Lyric poet, writer, biographer of Bronte family; author of three volumes of poetry, editor of more than two dozen poetry anthologies; literary contributor and literary editor at The Boston Evening Transcript from 1906-31; published in Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times, The New Republic, Scribner’s and the North American Review; professor of creative literature at Atlanta University (1935-45); founded and led B.J. Brimmer publishing company. In 1918, was the fourth recipient of the Spingarn Medal, given by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an annual award for outstanding achievement by an African American. The first award was made in 1915 to biologist Ernest E. Just, with William E. B. Du Bois winning in 1920 and George Washington Carver in 1923.

[For more: wikipedia / New York Public Library Archives: http://archives.nypl.org/scm/20562 ]

Born in Kentucky, author of 36 books and nearly 3,000 poems; known as the Keats of Kentucky for his Romantic evocation of natural world. Earning an international reputation, Edmund Gosse selected the verse and wrote the introduction to his collection, Kentucky Poems; his work was recognized by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt with an invitation to the White House (1905); his friendships included Kate Chopin, E. A. Robinson, Oliver Wendell Holmes. In 1913, he published a poem entitled “Waste Land” in Poetry magazine in an issue that also contained an essay by Ezra Pound. Said to have influenced T. S. Eliot’s 1922 work, “The Waste Land,” (which is often identified as the beginning of modernist poetry), Cawein’s work also drew deeply upon Anglo-European literary allusion and classical mythology. Unlike Eliot, however, he wrote in traditional verse form.

[For more: wikipedia / Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The nineteenth century edited by Eric L. Haralson (1998) /

American essayist, author, playwright, poet, biographer. Grandson of prominent abolitionist, Maria Weston Chapman, and first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay; son of Henry Grafton Chapman, Wall Street broker and president of New York Stock Exchange; married into Astor family; best-known for his moral and political philosophy and reformist essays regarding role of money in politics and need for quality education free of business influences. Educated at Harvard and Harvard Law, he wrote several volumes of literary criticism (on Emerson, the Greeks, Shakespeare), became a leading reformer and president of the Good Government Club, serving as editor of The Political Nursery (1897-1901). Friend of Theodore Roosevelt, William James and other leading intellectuals. In 1912, he gave one of America’s greatest speeches at the site of a Pennsylvania lynching (known as the “Coatesville Address,” later printed in Harper’s Weekly) and he wrote a biography of his grandmother’s colleague and abolitionist leader, William Lloyd Garrison (1913). His selected essays, edited by Jacques Barzan, were published in 1957 and 1999. 12 volumes of his collected works were published in 1970.

[For more: wikipedia / encyclopedia britannica / National Portrait Gallery: http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/wharton/chap1.htm / Iowa State U Library: http://www.add.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/manuscripts/MS244.html

American journalist, newspaper editor, dramatist and portrait photographer. Born in Brownsville, Nebraska to New England missionaries working with Great Plains Indians; learned some Comanche, Sioux and Cheyenne as a young child. Delivered papers and worked as compositor with older brother, Sam, the publisher of the Carson City Daily Appeal. Lived in San Francisco for a time before moving to New York to write for the New York Journal. Wrote exposé on soldiers’ conditions and rotten food during Spanish American War; served as managing editor with New York Sunday News (early 1900s). Editor of Munsey's Magazine (1904 to 1925), he also worked as managing editor of several other popular pulp magazines including All-Story Weekly, The Ocean, Scrapbook, and Railroad Man’s. He was an avid promoter of young fiction writers, working as a columnist for the New York Sun from 1925 to 1942. A life-long outdoorsman, he wrote an extensive collection of travel books. Correspondent with Zane Grey, H.L. Mencken, prominent politicians and artists, he was also a skilled amateur photographer who took more than 3,000 portraits of important contemporaries.

[For more: Syracuse U Library: http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/d/davis_rh.htm / New York Public Library archives: http://archives.nypl.org/mss/739 / Time Magazine, The Press: Recalling Bob Davis, Monday, June 16, 1930 / “Lost at Sea: The Story of The Ocean” by John Locke, pp. 5-14 in The Ocean: 100th Anniversary Collection (Elkhorn, CA: Off-Trail Publications) “‘Bob’ Davis Honored by Fellow-Authors,” New York Times, June 17, 1931.]

Born in Iowa? First President of Kingfisher College, Kingfisher, OK, where he was valued as a skilled fund-raiser, resigning in 1908. PhD, 1912 from University of Chicago. Later served as professor of literature, ancient and medieval history and sociology (ca 1911+?) and Head of the English Department at the State Normal School, Wayne, Nebraska where he met Neihardt? Edited the school edition of Neihardt’s Song of Hugh Glass (1919) and wrote and published John G. Neihardt: Man and Poet (1920).

[ For more: Lucile F. Aly, John G. Neihardt: A Critical Biography (Rodopi, 1977) ]

Raised on a farm in upstate New York, he graduated from Cornell with a degree in botany and attended graduate school at Butler University and the University of Indiana School of Medicine. Emulating Louis Agassiz, he studied ichthyology and taught natural history, writing over half a dozen scientific texts on fish and discovering over two thousand species, becoming one of the foremost American experts on fish. He joined the faculty of the University of Indiana in natural history in 1879 and was named president in 1885 (the nation’s youngest at the time). In 1891, upon the recommendation of Andrew White, then President of Cornell, he became first President of the newly established Stanford University. In addition to his work in education and administration, he was a peace activist who opposed war (for evolutionary reasons to preserve the genetic diversity) and served as president of the World Peace Foundation and World Peace Conference. He testified as an expert witness for the defense in the Scopes Trial and worked with the ACLU to raise funds for Scopes’ defense. He was also a member of the Bohemian Club and served as a Director of the Sierra Club. He was a trustee of the Human Betterment Foundation, an organization that distributed information about eugenics, especially legislation regarding forced sterilization (he did not support the radical implications of eugenics).

[For more: wikipedia / http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/davidstarrjordan.html / http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/chronob/JORD1851.htm

American publisher from Maine; founded most important private press in the U.S. Influenced by William Morris and Arts and Crafts movement, he is best known for his promotion of writers associated with British Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic movements and mid to late Victorianism. Not always respecting contemporary copyright, he printed nearly 800 different volumes, including the works of Morris, Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Walter Pater, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Walt Whitman, George Meredith, John Addington Symons, Ernest Dowson, John Ruskin, and an eclectic range of others whose works might not have otherwise been available in America.

[For more: wikipedia / http://thomasbirdmosher.net/printing/printing.html http://blog.case.edu/ksl/specialcollections/2013/09/15/thomas_bird_mosher_the_pirate_of_portland ]

Born in Rose Hill, Iowa, of Quaker descent. American historian and journalist. Taught college English, then headed Journalism Department at the University of Iowa, becoming Dean of College of Journalism at the University of Missouri in 1942. Often credited as the first or one of the earliest developers of photojournalism; at Missouri, established the first photojournalism program. Editor of several journals, including Journalism Quarterly (1930-35) and author of several scholarly texts, he won the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for History for his History of American Magazines (1938). Collected best-selling books in America (1662-1945) now part of the University of Missouri’s special collections.

For more: [ wikipedia / Columbia Encyclopedia online / http://www.iowalum.com/pulitzerPrize/motttest.cfm ]

26th President of the U. S., leader of Progressive Movement, whose history of military and political involvement (war in Cuba, Rough Riders, Bull Moose Party etc.) is well-documented. He developed a love of nature and outdoor adventure and activity as a child recovering from poor health and asthma. Widowed at a young age, he ranched in the Badlands of South Dakota and later, North Dakota, and became well-known as an outdoorsman who championed the conservation movement, adding to national forests and setting aside lands for public use. He was also, however, a big-game hunter who took thousands of animals as specimens, with little benefit to science. Author of over thirty books, he kept up an enormous correspondence with contemporary intellectuals, political figures, family and friends.

[For more: wikipedia / http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/theodoreroosevelt / http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/site/c.elKSIdOWIiJ8H/b.8090799/k.C003/Home.htm ]

Editor of The Bookfellow Poetry Annual and Bookfellow Anthology. Author of Chronicles of Bagdad . . . (1919), Adventures with Books and Autographs (1920), pamphlet, Advice to Poets (1923); Hilltop in Michigan; a legend of the Bookfellow library (1940). In 1915 married Flora Warren Seymour (1888-1948), a Chicago attorney, who worked for the US Indian Service and joined him in organizing the Order of Bookfellows, a national society of readers and writers. She became the first woman member of the Board of Indian Commissioners and wrote numerous books and stories about Native Americans and biographies of frontier figures for children (Sacagawea, Pocahontas, Kit Carson, LaSalle et al), later serving as delegate to the National Council of Women in 1917 and 1919.

[For more: Library of Congress / http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/4778/Seymour-Flora-Warren-1888-1948.html http://myweb.wvnet.edu/~jelkins/lp-2001/seymour.html ]

Prolific American author, born in Maryland, most famous for the muckraking novel The Jungle (1906). Won the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. During his college years, he wrote dime novels and stories for pulp magazines to earn money for tuition. An idealistic socialist, the social and political critique of his novels led to real-world action, leading to the establishment of the Food and Drug Administration, the California chapter of the ACLU, the End Poverty movement during the Dust Bowl era, and exposés against yellow journalism etc. Sinclair had a strong interest in occult phenomena and telepathy. Mental Radio (1930) recounts his wife Mary’s telepathic ability and experiences. This book was influential in leading to the establishment of Duke University’s parapsychology department.

[For more: wikipedia / http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americannovel/timeline/sinclair.html / http://www.online-literature.com/upton_sinclair/ / http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jupton.htm ]

American poet and playwright, publishing over twenty volumes of verse. Born on Long Island, NY, he was a long-time resident of California, establishing an artists’ colony in Carmel. Ambrose Bierce was his literary mentor; a close friend of Jack London, he served as the later encourager of the younger Robinson Jeffers. A member of the Bohemian Club, he participated in dramatic productions. His verse is distinguished by its Romantic, mystical, visionary and sensual qualities, including themes of incest and homosexuality; sometimes classified as an American Decadent. Known to carry a vial of cyanide, he eventually used it to take his own life.

[For more: wikipedia / http://www.george-sterling.org/ ]

American lyric poet, first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry (in 1918, when it was known as the Columbia University Poetry Society Prize). Born in St. Louis, MO, she frequently traveled to Chicago where she became associated with the Chicago Renaissance and the literary circle forming around Poetry magazine. Best known for her use of traditional poetic form when others were experimenting with free verse, it was there that she met the poet, Vachal Lindsay who fell in love with her. Since he could not support her, however, she wed Ernst Filsinger, later divorcing him. She then renewed her friendship with Lindsay (by this time married with a family). Two years after his suicide, she took her own life as well.

[For more: wikipedia / http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/658 http://brbl-archive.library.yale.edu/exhibitions/awia/gallery/teasdale.html ]

American writer, educator, born in Pennsylvania, educated at Princeton and Princeton Theological Seminary; taught as professor literature at Princeton (1899-1923). An ordained minister, he chaired the committee that wrote the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship and wrote hundreds of poems, essays, sermons, hymns, and short stories, including “The First Christmas Tree.” His Romantic and natural theological approach to human life and its sympathetic relationship with nature influenced his aesthetic taste and literary criticism.

[For more: wikipedia / http://www.history.pcusa.org/collections/findingaids/fa.cfm?record_id=64 http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/henry-van-dyke-239.php http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Van%20Dyke%2C%20Henry%2C%201852-1933 ]

Literary critic and poet, born in Massachusetts, educated at Harvard where he was strongly influenced by Henry Adams and attended Emerson’s last lecture. In 1877-78 he was acting Professor of English and History in the University of Nebraska, leaving to become an assistant editor of The Nation, and a regular contributor to the Atlantic Monthly and Harper’s. From 1880-82, he returned to Nebraska as professor of English. The author of over twenty works of literary criticism and literary biography (he was the recognized authority on Poe during his lifetime), he edited the works of Poe, Shelley and Lamb. Professor of comparative literature at Columbia University (1891-1904), he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in 1930, was posthumously awarded one of the first Frost Medals for lifetime achievement in poetry by the Poetry Society of America. The Woodberry Poetry Room at Harvard is named after him.

[For more: wikipedia / http://hcl.harvard.edu/poetryroom/about/ http://www.oberlin.edu/archive/holdings/finding/RG30/SG304/biography.html ]