Family moves to Maple Avenue in St. Louis after accident
Poet involved
What happened
After Orrick Johns lost his leg in a streetcar accident in St. Louis, Missouri, his family was forced to give up their home on Cabanne Place and move across the tracks to Maple Avenue, a less affluent neighborhood. The move symbolized a downward shift in the family's fortunes and came just as Johns, still recovering from his amputation, spent six months bedridden in the new home. During this period of convalescence, he became a voracious reader, devouring the English Romantic poets who would shape his literary sensibility.
Literary impact
This displacement and economic reversal deepened Johns's sensitivity to social inequality and the fragility of middle-class security, themes that would appear in his later poetry. The prolonged bedrest also provided the crucial time for him to develop his literary tastes and reading habits, laying the foundation for his lifelong commitment to writing and his eventual career as a poet.
Source: Wikipedia
