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Carleton, Will, 1845-1912We have 1 book for this author.William McKendree Carleton (October 21, 1845 - 1912) was an American poet, who wrote mostly about rural life.[1] Early yearsBorn on October 21, 1845, in rural Lenawee County, Hudson, Michigan, Will Carleton was the fifth child and third son of John Hancock and Celeste (Smith) Carleton. [2] In 1869, he graduated from Hillsdale College and delivered on that occasion the exquisite poem, Rifts in the Cloud.[3] Biography"After graduating from college in 1869, Will Carleton first worked as a newspaper journalist in Hillsdale. He had been in the habit of writing poetry as a youngster. His first significant work published was Betsy and I Are Out, a poignant tale of a divorce which was first published in the Toledo Blade, but then reprinted by Harper’s Weekly. Betsy and I Are Out was written in 1871 when Carleton was only twenty-five and employed as editor of the Detroit Weekly Tribune.[4] This poem was soon followed in 1872 by Over the Hill to the Poor House developing the plight of the aged and those with indifferent families. This piece captured national attention and catapulted Carleton into literary prominence —a position he was to hold the rest of his life as he continued to write and to lecture from coast to coast". [5] In 1878, Carleton moved to Boston, where he married Anne Goodell, and they moved to New York City in 1882. In 1907, he returned to Hudson as a renowned poet. Carleton's quotes are also well known throughout America.[6] [7] With the Public Act 51 of 1919, the Michigan legislature passed into law making it a duty upon teachers to teach at least one of his poems to children in school, and October 21st was officially named as Will Carleton Day in Michigan..[8] [9] Furthermore, a school in Hillsdale has been named after him, Will Carleton Academy. [10] On June 24, 2007, it was reported that "the neglected burial plot of the family of rural Michigan poet, Will Carleton, whose 1872 work, Over the Hill to the Poor House, thrust him into national prominence, is getting a makeover". [11] His works"What Robert Burns did for the Scottish cotter and the Reverend William Barnes has done for the English farmer, Will Carleton has done for the American-touched with the glamour of poetry the simple and monotonous events of daily life, and shown that all circumstances of life, however trivial they may appear, possess those alternations of the comic and pathetic, the good and bad, the joyful and sorrowful, which go to make up the days and nights, the summers and winters, of this perplexing world".[12]
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This biographical information was gathered from the Will_Carleton page, courtesy of the Wikipedia project. BooksFarm Ballads |
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