Edgar Lee Masters
Edgar Lee Masters
About Edgar Lee Masters: Born in Garnett on August 12, 1868. Edgar Lee Masters published 12 plays, 21 books on poetry, 6 novels and 6 biographies, including those of Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Vachel Lindsay, and Walt Whitman. Masters passed away on March 5, 1950 in Melrose Park, Pennsylvania at the age of 81. He was the author of Spoon River Anthology, his most famous works. Also, The New Star Chamber and Other Essays, Songs and Satires, The Great Valley, The Serpent in the Wilderness An Obscure Tale, The Spleen.
Quote by Edgar Lee Masters – “To put meaning in one’s life may end in Madness, but life without meaning is the torture of restlessness and vague desire – It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.”
This plaque can be found in the Archer Room at the Garnett Public Library, adjacent to the Walker Art Gallery.
DID YOU KNOW?
Edgar Lee Masters first published his early poems and essays under the pseudonym Dexter Wallace, after his mother's maiden name and his father's middle name). His mother was Emma J. Dexter and his father was Hardin Wallace Masters.
Masters was awarded the Mark Twain SIlver Medal in 1936. He won the Poetry Society of America award in 1941, the Academy of American Poets Fellowship in 1942, and the Shelly Memorial Award in 1944.
Garnett's Edgar Lee Masters made it on a postage stamp!
