Charles Erskine Scott Wood

Background

His mother, born in Mercersburg, Pa. , was of Scots ancestry; his father, a native of Baltimore, Md. , was of English descent.

Education

After the war the family moved from Erie to a farm at Owings Mills, Md. , not far from Baltimore, where Erskine attended the Baltimore City College, really only a high school.

In 1870 his father secured the youth's appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Wood made a mediocre showing and often threatened to leave, but graduated in 1874 and was assigned to the 216t Infantry as a second lieutenant.

Once again he was restive, and in 1881 he enrolled at Columbia University.

The next year he secured a leave to attend classes full time; he earned the degrees of Ph. B.

Career

After service at Fort Bidwell, Calif. , and Fort Vancouver, Washington Territory, he became aide-de-camp in 1877 to Gen. O. O. Howard [q. v. ].

The following year he served with Howard in the campaign against the rampaging Bannocks and Paiutes.

By his later account, he became "bitterly opposed to the corruption of the Indian Ring in Washington. "

It "stole the appropriations made for the Indians and when we were ordered out to fight them, I felt I was supporting an unworthy cause" (MS. vita, Wood Papers).

When Howard was transferred to West Point, Wood accompanied him and served as adjutant of the Military Academy.

(1882) and LL. B.

(1883).

He also became a crusader for justice, working tirelessly for such causes as those of Tom Mooney [Supp.

3] and Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti [qq. v. ]

, and becoming known as a philosophical anarchist.

"I have ridden, in the course of my campaigns, " he wrote (ibid. )

, "over this country from the Rockies to the Pacific and I have seen that vast domain taken by the few with the aid of Congress and secured to their heirs and assigns forever by that relic of the Middle Ages--the fee simple deed.

There is not a place for the common man in the covered wagon. "

His philosophy brought him into contact with muckrakers like Lincoln Steffens [Supp.

2] and reformers like Emma Goldman [Supp.

2].

While practicing law Wood continued the creative work he had begun during his military days.

At sixty-six he retired from law practice and was succeeded in the firm by his oldest son, Erskine.

Of his published works, the best known are The Poet in the Desert (1915, with later versions in 1918 and 1929) and Heavenly Discourse (1927), the latter having undergone more than forty reprintings.

Wood's reputation as a minor but enduring American author rests mainly on these two works.

Wood was tall, with curling brown hair and beard that turned gray in later years.

His eyes were large and luminous, and he made a dramatic appearance in the long military cape that he habitually wore.

[Wood's papers, which include an unfinished autobiography, are at the Huntington Lib. , San Marino, Calif.

Helena Kay has written an M. A. thesis, "Charles Erskine Scott Wood: His Life and Works" (Univ. of Texas, 1937).

Biographical details appear in the foreword by Sara Bard Field and the introduction by William Rose Benét to Wood's Collected Poems (1949).

See also Wood's journals for 1878 and 1879, as printed in Oreg.

Hist.

Religion

Deep in the desert, the Poet, in an extended dialogue with Truth, asks how a sick society can be healed and learns that its cure lies in man's ultimate acceptance of Nature's law: "growth through freedom. "

Politics

He wrote sporadically, contributing poems, articles, and stories to Century Magazine and the Pacific Monthly, sometimes under a pseudonym.

Personality

In 1937 he suffered a coronary thrombosis and was never again in good health.

Interests

• Music & Bands

  Quart. , Mar. , June 1969; Edwin R. Bingham, "Oregon's Romantic Rebels: John Reed and Charles Erskine Scott Wood, " Pacific Northwest Quart. , July 1959; obituaries in Assembly (West Point alumni magazine), Oct. 1944 (by Sara Bard Field), San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 23, 1944, and San Jose Mercury Herald-News, Jan. 23, 1944; Sara Bard Field in Saturday Rev. of Literature, Mar. 24, 1945; and, on the sales of Heavenly Discourse, Publishers' Weekly, July 13, 1940, pp. 113-14. ]

Connections

(After Mrs. Wood's death, they were married on Jan. 20, 1938. )

divorced:

Field

Wood then went to San Francisco, where, having separated from his wife, who refused to grant him a divorce, he began living with Sara Bard Field, a poet thirty years his junior, who had divorced her husband in order to marry Wood.

married:

Nannie

He was sent to Washington with a special report, and while there, on Nov. 26, 1878, married Nannie Moale Smith.

Wife:

Field

Wood then went to San Francisco, where, having separated from his wife, who refused to grant him a divorce, he began living with Sara Bard Field, a poet thirty years his junior, who had divorced her husband in order to marry Wood.

children:

William

Their five children who lived to maturity were Erskine, Berwick, Nan, William Maxwell, and Lisa.

children:

,

Wood, Charles Erskine Scott, (Feb. 20, 1852 - Jan. 22, 1944), Pennsylvania 1852 1944 Male Army Officer Author Lawyer army officer, lawyer, and author, was born in Erie, Pa., the second of seven children--all boys but the youngest--of Rose (Carson) and William Maxwell Wood.

husband:

Field

Wood then went to San Francisco, where, having separated from his wife, who refused to grant him a divorce, he began living with Sara Bard Field, a poet thirty years his junior, who had divorced her husband in order to marry Wood.