Background

Masters, Edgar Lee was born on August 23, 1869 in Garnett, Kansas, United States. Son of Hardin Wallace and Emma J. (Dexter) Masters.

Education

Education high school and Knox College, Ill.

Career

Studied law in father’s law office. Admitted to bar, 1891.

Works

• Other Work

  • Author: A Book of Verses, 1898. Songs and Sonnets, 1900. Maximilian (drama in blank verse), 1902.The New Star Chamber and Other Essays, 1904. Blood of the Prophets, 1905. Spoon River Anthology, 1915 (translated into Swedish, German, Norwegian, Flemish, Japanese).Songs and Satires, 1916. The Great Valley, 1916. Toward the Gulf (poems), 1918.Starved Rock (poems), 1919. Mitch Miller, 1920

  • Domesday Book, 1920. The Open Sea, 1921

  • Children of the Market Place, 1922.Skeeters Kirby, 1923. The Nuptial Flight, 1923. Mirage, 1924

  • The New Spoon River, 1924.Selected Poems, 1925. Lee, a Dramatic Poem, 1926. Kit O’Brien, 1927

  • Jack Kelso (a dramatic poem), 1928.The Fate of the Jury (poem), 1929. Gettysburg, Manila, Acoma, 1930. Lichee Nuts, 1930

  • Lincoln—The Man, 1931.Godbey (A Dramatic Poem). 1931

  • The Serpent in the Wilderness, 1933. The Tale of Chicago, 1933.Dramatic Duologues, 1934. Richmond (dramatic poem), 1934. Andrew Jackson (drama), 1934.Invisible Landscapes (poems), 1935. Vachel Lindsay, a Biography, 1935. Poems of People, 1936.The Golden Fleece of California, 1936. Whitman, 1937

  • The New World (poem), 1937. The Tide of Time (novel), 1937.Mark Twain (biography), 1938. More People (poems), 1939. Emerson, 1940

  • Illinois Poems, 1941.Along the Illinois, 1942. The Sangamon, 1942. Awarded first $5000 fellowship granted by Academy of America Poets.

Membership

Club: Jefferson (president 1904-1905, 1907-1908).

Connections

Married Helen Jenkins, 1898 (divorced 1923). Married second, Ellen Coyne, 1926.

Father:

Hardin Wallace Masters

Mother:

Emma J. (Dexter) Masters

Spouse:

Helen Jenkins

Spouse:

Ellen Coyne