Edgar Albert guest -- A Birthday Tribute

August sees the anniversary of one of America's most popular poets from the inter war years.

Though born in England Edgar (Eddie) Guest is usually thought of as an American poet since his family moved to the USA when he was only ten and he chose to become a naturalised citizen when he was 21.
http://oldpoetry.com/oauthor/show/Edgar_Albert_Guest
He started his working life before completing high school as a copyboy for the Detroit Free Press and was associated with that newspaper for the next 60 years..
In 1898 a part of Guest’s job was to scan other newspapers with which the Free Press had an arrangement for copy that the D.F.P. could use and this would often include poetry. The enterprising youngster thought that instead of transcribing other people’s poems he could write (and get paid for) his own and so he submitted a trial verse. The editor, Arthur Mosley, obviously thought that this high school dropout had some talent and Guest’s first piece appeared on 11 December 1898. This was the first of over 11,000 poems the paper published from Guest, many of them syndicated to over 300 other papers.
The reading public obviously appreciated Guest’s folksy, vernacular style of writing and he was soon given his own column, at first weekly and then daily. The poems, popular though they were were only a part of what was a traditional column in a small town paper. Much of the early column was taken up with prose pieces on local events and the everyday activities and concerns of small town s everywhere.
Guest realised that he was just one among many writers and that he needed something to make his name stand out and be remembered over all the others. He struck upon the idea of using much more verse and from that point forward virtually all of his writings were notable for their rhythm and rhyme. Judging by the reaction from his readers they were more than happy and, as he wanted, his was the work they sought.
Readers soon began clamouring for collections of his verse and, together with his brother Harry, Edgar Guest started to publish his own work. However this was equally distinctive. The Guest bothers did not have large amounts of the movable type that was used in those days and could only put together about 8 pages at a time and so that’s what they did. Set up 8 pages print multiple copies and then set another 8 and so on until the book was finished and ready to put together. In this way the first collected edition of Edgar’s work was published in a 136 page book entitled Homely Rhymes and sold over 800 copies. This was such a success that a couple of years later a new book “Just Glad Things” was produced in a similar fashion but this time sold almost twice as many copies. Another few years and the demand for yet another book led to the production of “Just Folks” though by more conventional methods which was fortunate since this sold over 3000 copies.
In due course Edgar produced more than 20 books and one of them “It Takes A Heap Of Living” sold over a million copies. During all this Guest was still meeting his deadline for the D.F.P. and in over 30 years of his daily column he never missed a single deadline.
By this time the lad who had started by clipping copy from various newspapers was syndicated to over 300 papers himself and many other copy boys would be clipping his work for other papers. He also started broadcasting his own weekly radio programs and also had a TV series with the fledgling industry. He regularly gave talks from Coast-to-Coast and was declared the Poet laureate of Michigan the only person ever to hold that position.
Throughout his writing career of over 60 years Edgar Guest maintained his popularity with the reading public by writing about homely things in homely words and a homely style. At heart Guest himself was always one of them. A religious, hard working, patriotic American. All the more so for not having been born there. The high-brow world of modern poetry, as he termed it, held no appeal for him and it may have in its turn ignored him but with the mainstream of readers his popularity remained strong.

See for your self how Guest handled some of the themes of everyday life in these few samples of his prodigious output and celebrate with us the anniversary of another great poet. Edgar Albert Guest 1881 – 1959.


FAMILY http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/32148-Edgar-Albert-Guest-Mother

HOME http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/44691-Edgar-Albert-Guest-The-Little-Home

FRIENDSHIP http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/44647-Edgar-Albert-Guest-A-Friend

FOOD http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/32117-Edgar-Albert-Guest-Sausage

WORK http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/32084-Edgar-Albert-Guest-Who-Is-Your-Boss

PATRIOTISM http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/32054-Edgar-Albert-Guest-The-Flag-on-the-Farm

RELIGION http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/32092-Edgar-Albert-Guest-The-Little-Church

DEATH http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/32140-Edgar-Albert-Guest-As-fall-the-Leaves

PERSEVERANCE http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/44726-Edgar-Albert-Guest-It-Couldn-t-Be-Done