Cross & Crescent

He drew a circle that shut me out –

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

But love and I had the wit to win:

We drew a circle that took him in!

-Edwin Markham

This short poem is one of my favorites. In a few simple words it expresses the irresistible ability of love to bring people together despite their differences. I have read this poem many times in the past. But, until recently, I didn’t know the name of the man who wrote it.

As I also discovered, we can call this man a brother.

The Early Years

Edwin Markham (Rollins College 1924) was born 155 years ago near the Willamette River in Oregon City, Oregon Territory in 1852. Markham spent most of his early years in various places in California. He worked as a ranch hand, cowboy, and farmer until about 1868.

As with most frontier children, he had a limited formal education that was supplemented with reading and discussing books. At age 16, he entered California College in Vacaville, California. Eventually, Markam transferred to San Jose State Normal School, which he graduated from in 1872.

After graduation, he held various teaching positions in San Luis Obispo County, Christian College in Santa Rosa, and Eldorado County. At age 27, he became the Eldorado County superintendent of schools. While living in Placerville, California, Markham became a member of its Masonic Lodge.

The Poet

Markham’s career as a poet was launched on January 15, 1899, when the San Francisco Examiner published his most famous poem, The Man With The Hoe. The poem was an immediate hit with the public and spread through the country and then across the world.

By the end of 1899, his first collection of poetry, The Man with the Hoe and Other Poems, appeared and quickly sold out its first printing.

Two years later another collection, Lincoln and Other Poems, was a popular best seller. This collection contained the poem, Lincoln, the Man of the People, that impressed famed writer Jack London so much that he declared, “If its author had made no other bid for fame, this one bid would suffice.”

This poem was so popular that Markham was asked to read it at the 1922 dedication ceremony of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

In 1900, Markham and his third wife, Anna, moved to the East Coast where Staten Island, New York, would become their home for the rest of their lives.

The Celebrity

Because of the great popularity and financial success of his poetry, Markham led a busy life on the lecture and poetry reading circuit. His audiences were as likely to be labor and radical political groups as they were to be the “upper crust” of American society.

His emphasis on political themes and social commentary distinguished his poetry from the work of most other poets of his day. His call for social justice and better treatment of the working class had receptive audiences in union halls, college auditoriums, and the drawing rooms of the literary elite.

Markham wrote four more collections of poetry during his lifetime. He wrote The Shoes of Happiness and Other Poems in 1915, The Gates of Paradise and Other Poems in 1920, and New Poems: Eighty Poems at Eighty in 1932.

He also wrote Children in Bondage, dealing with the abuses of child labor, and California the Wonderful, a book about the state’s historical past. Both of these best-selling books were written in 1914.

The Fraternity Man

A few years ago I purchased a copy of The Man With The Hoe that was hand signed by Markham. Much to my surprise and delight the inscription read:

To the Grand Chapter of Theta Kappa Nu, with the fraternal greetings of the author: August, 1928

-Edwin Markham, 1928

Later I discovered that Markham was a charter member of the Theta Kappa Nu chapter at Rollins College. Obviously, he was initiated as an associate member of Theta Kappa Nu. After all, Markham was 72-years-old at the time of his initiation.

Once a Theta Nu, he often visited chapter houses while on his extended lecture and poetry tours of the country. His visits were frequently covered in the Theta News magazine.

In 1933, Theta News documented two of his visits. One visit was to The Theta Kappa Nu California Alpha chapter in late 1933, where Markham attended a University Club dinner in Pasadena, California, organized by the chapter. It was noted that “…Markham once again displayed his keen interest in the members of the Fraternity and their activities.”

Earlier in 1933, “America’s uncrowned poet laureate” visited the Theta Kappa Nu New York Beta (Alfred) chapter to read and comment on his poetry to the faculty and students of the college.

According to Theta News “…Brother Markham arrived at the house about five o’clock in the afternoon giving the fellows the opportunity of having an informal and interesting chat with him preceding dinner. The conversation, for the most part, dealt with the history of Theta Kappa Nu, with the various chapters that Brother Markham had visited in his travels, and his many and interesting experiences during his eventful life.”

After dinner, he even found time before his formal lecture to talk to the chapter’s pledges.

What wasn’t mentioned in either of these articles is the fact that Markham enjoyed a beer or two before his lectures. One of reasons that he liked to visit his Theta Kappa Nu brothers is that they made sure that his thirst was always quenched.

The March 1937 Theta News reported that Markham had received an award of $5,000 from the Academy of American Poets. Markham had founded this organization in 1910.

This award was in recognition of his distinguished service to the field of poetry.

The award was approved by a committee composed of prominent people like Eugene O’Neill, Mrs. Calvin (Grace) Coolidge, and Mrs. James (Betsy) Roosevelt.

He was 84 years of age at the time he received this honor.

Conclusion

Markham was a prolific poet and successful lecturer for more than 40 years.

During his lifetime, he maintained a vast correspondence with such well know people as Ambrose Bierce, Jack London, Amy Lowell, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Carl Sandberg.

Markham suffered a stroke in 1936. He never fully recovered and eventually died in 1940, at his home in Staten Island, New York.

He left his collection of over 15,000 books, unpublished manuscripts, documents, and personal letters to the Edwin Markham Archives of the Herrmann Library at Wagner College in New York City, New York.

The crest and crowning of all good — Life’s final star, is Brotherhood

-Edwin Markham

As a postscript, The Ballad of the Gallows Bird, written in 1896, was published for the first time by the Antioch Press in 1960.