Joyce Kilmer (6 December, 1886 – 30 July, 1918) was a prolific American poet who is known for celebrating nature.
Fun Facts about Joyce Kilmer:
- Alfred Joyce Kilmer was born in New Brunswick, NJ as the youngest child of Annie Elle Kilburn and Dr. Frederick Barnett Kilmer. Mrs. Kilmer was a writer and composer, while Dr. Kilmer was a physician and chemist working for Johnson and Johnson.
Dr. Kilmer invented the baby powder. - At the age of eight, he was already the editor of his Rutgers College Grammar School’s paper.
- Eventually he got a scholarship to Rutgers College where he was also the editor of the school’s newspaper. Unfortunately, Mr. Kilmer was unable to complete the difficult mathematics requirement and was asked to repeat his sophomore year. He then transferred to Columbia University.
- While at Columbia he acted as the vice president of a literary society, and associate editor of the school’s newspaper.
- After graduation Mr. Kilmer married Aline Murray, a fellow poet he met in Rutgers. He started teaching Latin at Morristown High School in New Jersey and submitting his poems for publication.
- For awhile Mr. Kilmer worked at Funk and Wagnalls defining words for a dictionary which was published in 1912. He was paid five cents per word, but approached his work with such gusto that the publisher soon found it to be cheaper just to give him a salary.
- Joyce Kilmer’s first book, Summer of Love, was published in 1911, and the next year he started writing for the New York Times Review of Books and the New York Times Sunday Magazine.
- In 1913, Joyce Kilmer’s most famous poem, Trees, was published in Poetry magazine establishing him as a popular pet and wanted lecturer.
- When the United Stated entered World War I in 1917, Joyce Kilmer enlisted in the New York National Guard as a statistician in the Fighting 69th, the 69th New York Infantry Regiment. He deployed to France and refused commission as an officer, preferring to be sergeant with his regiment.
- Joyce Kilmer accompanied Major “Wild Bill” Donovan during the Second Battle of Marne. He led a scouting party to find a German machine gun position was killed by a sniper. To this day, he is still buried in France, at the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Memorial, near Fere-en-Tardenois, Aisne, Picardy, across the road from the farm where he was killed.
Zohar – Man of la Book
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Sources:
Joyce Kilmer: 1886—1918 | The Poetry Foundation.
The tragedy of Joyce Kilmer, the Catholic poet killed in World War I | America: The Jesuit Review
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Fun Facts Friday: Joyce Kilmer
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Joyce Kilmer (6 December, 1886 – 30 July, 1918) was a prolific American poet who is known for celebrating nature, famous for his poem Trees
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Man of la Book
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