William vaughn moody biography

American dramatist (–)

William Vaughn Moody
Portrait of William Vaughn Moody, by De W.C. Ward.
Born	()July 8, Spencer, Indiana
Died	October 17, () (aged&#;41) Colorado Springs, Colorado
Occupation	Dramatist, poet
Nationality	American

William Vaughn Moody (July 8, – October 17, ) was an American dramatist and poet.

Moody was author of The Great Divide, first presented under the title of The Sabine Woman at the Garrick Theatre in Chicago on April 12, , and then on Broadway at the Princess Theatre, running for performances from October 3, , to March 24, ^[1] His poetic dramas are The Masque of Judgment (), The Fire Bringer (), and The Death of Eve (left undone at his death).

It is in very truth the eagle nation Milton saw, Mewing its mighty youth. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Moody lectured at the University of Chicago in and stayed there until when, having risen to Assistant Professor, he left academe to write poetry. In the various poems there are acknowledgments of awe, of reverence, of spiritual love, and of passion; taken together they show the same breadth of view that belongs to the human equation in which Moody regards woman as the greatest factor.

His best-known poem is "An Ode in Time of Hesitation," on the Spanish-American War; others include "Gloucester Moor," "On a Soldier Fallen in the Philippines," "The Brute," "Harmonics" (his only sonnet), "Until the Troubling of the Waters," "The Departure," "How the Mead-Slave Was Set Free," "The Daguerreotype," and "The Death of Eve." His poems everywhere bespeak the social conscience of the progressive era (–) in which he spent his foreshortened life.

In style they evoke a mastery of the verse-craft of his time and also the reach and depth derived from his intensive studies of Milton and of Greek tragedy.

Biography

Born at Spencer, Indiana, his parents died while he was a boy, and he had to work to help support himself while he completed his education.

After attending New Albany High School he went on to Harvard University, where he was awarded the George B. Sohier Prize for literature and earned an A.B. in and an A.M. in

He was a classmate of W. E. B. Du Bois, who quoted from his play The Fire-Bringer in a speech in honor of Carter G. Woodson.^[2]

He taught English at Harvard and Radcliffe until , when he became first an instructor at the University of Chicago and then, from to , assistant professor of English and rhetoric there.

He received the degree of Litt.D. from Yale in , and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

William vaughn moody poems Cause of Death. Manly Moody died from brain cancer at Colorado Springs at the age of He must give each man his portion, each his pride and worthy place;.

Among his close friends were the historian Ferdinand Schevill, the editor Norman Hapgood, the author, academic, activist and diplomat Robert Morss Lovett, and the poet Trumbull Stickney. After a time he resigned his teaching post at the University of Chicago, commenting (as his friend John Matthews Manly quotes him in the introduction to the posthumous collection of his works), "I cannot do it; I feel that at every lecture I slay a poet."

Moody died from brain cancer at Colorado Springs at the age of

Works

• The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton (editor; , Cambridge)
• The Masque of Judgment ()
• Poems ()
• The Fire-Bringer (), intended as the first member of a trilogy on the Promethean theme, of which The Masque of Judgment, already published, was the second member)
• The Great Divide (), prose drama, especially successful on the stage.
• The Faith Healer (), prose drama, very successful on the stage
• A First View of English and American Literature (compiler with Robert M.

  Lovett; )

• The Poems of Trumbull Stickney (editor with George Cabot Lodge and John Ellerton Lodge; )

His complete works, including The Death of Eve, a fragment of the third member of the proposed trilogy mentioned above, were edited with an introduction by John M. Manly ().^[3]

See also

Notes

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:&#;Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (). New International Encyclopedia (1st&#;ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
• &#;This article&#;incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:&#;Chisholm, Hugh, ed.
  The great divide Daniel Gregory Mason. By then he had published three verse plays, The Masque of Judgment , The Fire-Bringer , and The Great Divide , one volume of poems , an edition of Milton's works , and a history of English literature Family Relations. Eve and Prometheus were one in seeking the knowledge and power to lift man above brute creation and in producing the clash between God and man which was the price of knowledge and the cost of progress.

  (). "Moody, William Vaughn". Encyclopædia Britannica (12th&#;ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company. This work in turn cites:

External links