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Joyce Kilmer was born on December 6, 1886, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Kilmer attended Rutgers Preparatory School and graduated in 1904. He attended Rutgers College from 1904 to 1906, then transferred to Columbia University, where he completed his bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1908. That same year, he married poet Aline Murray.
After Kilmer graduated college, he took a job teaching Latin at a high school in Morristown, New Jersey, and wrote features for The Literary Digest, The Nation, Town & Country, and The New York Times. From 1909 to 1912, he worked for Funk and Wagnalls, writing definitions for The Standard Dictionary, and continued to write magazine articles for publication.
In 1911, Kilmer published his first poetry collection, A Summer of Love (The Baker & Taylor Company). Two years later, he published what would become his most famous poem, “Trees,” in Poetry magazine. The poem was included in his second collection, Trees and Other Poems (Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1914).
Kilmer published his last poetry collection, Main Street and Other Poems (George H. Doran Company, 1917), the same year he enlisted in the U.S. Army to serve in World War I, during which time he continued to write poems while fighting in the Sixty-Ninth Regiment. He died of a gunshot from a German sniper on July 30, 1918.
Richard Aldington was born in Hampshire, England, in 1892. An early member of the Imagist...
Siegfried Sassoon, born in England in 1886, is best known for his poems inspired by his...
Christopher Morley was born in Pennsylvania in 1890. He was the author of Songs for a...
Andre Breton was born in France in 1896 and worked in psychiatric units during World War I. In...
Alfred Edward Housman was born in Fockbury, Worcestershire, England, on March 26, 1859. He...
Dana Burnet was born in Ohio in 1888. He was the author of Poems (Harper & Brothers,...