Edgar Guest
Biography of Edgar Albert Guest
The poet Edgar Guest had a significant life. Although many people have not heard of his name, he was still one of the most widely published and accessible poets during the 19th and 20th century and even to this day. To fully understand his importance, it is necessary to examine background, career, and influence he had on others through his poems. Edgar Guest was born on August 20th 1881 in the town off Birmingham, England (Poets.org). When he was ten years old, his family came to the United States and settled in Detroit, Michigan where he was educated. After Edwin (his father) lost his job, Edgar at the age of eleven began working as a copy boy at the Detroit Free Press part time. Later, Edgar’s father died when he was seventeen years old and Edgar had to drop out of high school to support himself and his family so he started to work full time at the Detroit Free Press where he stayed for the next 60 years (Poets.org). He worked his way up quickly working through several jobs and eventually achieved a higher position. Edgar was soon known as the “scrappy reporter in a competitive town” (Poemhunter.com). Then on December 11th 1898 his first poem appeared in a newspaper column creating his remarkable career. (Poemhunter.com). During his mid-life, Guest’s writing career bloomed into action. Soon he would be on radio shows, newspapers columns, and even on television for a short while. All this success started with the Newspaper column “Dailey Table chat” and “Blue Monday Chat” which gave a boost to his career (Poets.org). Soon he would be selling a million copies of his book and be published on several hundreds of newspapers (Poemhunter.com). He was organized and on top of things, never missing deadlines and always bringing quality work. People loved him so much that he eventually acquired the name “people’s poet” (Poemhunter.com). People really admired his work and were influenced by his catchy rhymes and
The poet Edgar Guest had a significant life. Although many people have not heard of his name, he was still one of the most widely published and accessible poets during the 19th and 20th century and even to this day. To fully understand his importance, it is necessary to examine background, career, and influence he had on others through his poems. Edgar Guest was born on August 20th 1881 in the town off Birmingham, England (Poets.org). When he was ten years old, his family came to the United States and settled in Detroit, Michigan where he was educated. After Edwin (his father) lost his job, Edgar at the age of eleven began working as a copy boy at the Detroit Free Press part time. Later, Edgar’s father died when he was seventeen years old and Edgar had to drop out of high school to support himself and his family so he started to work full time at the Detroit Free Press where he stayed for the next 60 years (Poets.org). He worked his way up quickly working through several jobs and eventually achieved a higher position. Edgar was soon known as the “scrappy reporter in a competitive town” (Poemhunter.com). Then on December 11th 1898 his first poem appeared in a newspaper column creating his remarkable career. (Poemhunter.com). During his mid-life, Guest’s writing career bloomed into action. Soon he would be on radio shows, newspapers columns, and even on television for a short while. All this success started with the Newspaper column “Dailey Table chat” and “Blue Monday Chat” which gave a boost to his career (Poets.org). Soon he would be selling a million copies of his book and be published on several hundreds of newspapers (Poemhunter.com). He was organized and on top of things, never missing deadlines and always bringing quality work. People loved him so much that he eventually acquired the name “people’s poet” (Poemhunter.com). People really admired his work and were influenced by his catchy rhymes and
Cited: “Biography of Edgar Albert Guest.” Poemhunter.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2011. . This source mainly helped me with the introduction and conclusion because it gave cool random facts about the poet for example that “he was refereed to as a people’s poet”. The source also gave me some good information and was verified accurate when i compared it to other sources. However i did not use this as my main source of information because it doesn’t seem that reliable and writing lacks a little quality. “Edgar Guest.” Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2011. . This was ont of my primary sources. It gave all the information from career, to influence and background. It was mostly what i used to write my paper and especially helped by on paragraph three where i discuss his career. This source can also be considered creditable because it is a “.org” website which usually means it can be trusted also all the other sources match the material in this one. “Edgar Guest.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia, 20 Nov. 2011. Web. 2 Dec. 2011. . I usually use wikipedia for a quick overall view of the topic.But in this case, it was very helpful with Guests background. Overall, i just used it as a starting point and later verified the accuracy using another source. Pinsky, Robert. “Speaking in Tongues.” Slate.com. Slate group, a Division by The Washington Post Company, 4 Oct. 2011. Web. 2 Dec. 2011. . This source helped me with my analysis of the poem and specifically helped me with the 4th paragraph about how Guest influenced people at that time. The source can be considered accurate to some extent because i compared this with several other sources. However, it is a very opinionated article so some of the content is not necessarily true.