Joaquin Miller, born Cincinnatus Hiner Miller on September 8, 1837, and dead on February 17, 1913, lived a life that seemed designed to invite legend. He was a poet, journalist, lawyer, teacher, dramatist, lecturer, rancher, and relentless self-inventor. To admirers in the nineteenth century, he was the “Poet of the Sierras,” a bard who had given the American West its own grand, romantic voice. To skeptics, he was an…
“Is there such a thing as genius, inspiration? I think there is no such thing. Rather let us call it a devout and all-pervading love of the sublime, the beautiful, and the good.”
Neighbourhood:
American Poets, Folk & Ballad Poets, Love Poets, Nature Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Despair, Longing
In the last week of December 1898, an aging schoolteacher in California completed a poem that would transform American literature and launch a national debate about labor, justice, and the human cost of industrial progress. Within weeks, Edwin Markham's "The Man with the Hoe" catapulted him from obscurity to international fame, earning him recognition as the "Dean of American Poetry" and the "Laureate of Labor." His…
“The crest and crowning of all good, life's final star, is Brotherhood.”
Neighbourhood:
American Poets, Nature Poets, Political Poets, Social Justice Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Spirituality, Wonder, Peace
