| Edgar Guest | |
|---|---|
| Born | Edgar Albert Guest 20 August 1881 Birmingham, England |
| Died | 5 August 1959 (aged 77) Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. |
| Resting place | Woodlawn Cemetery |
| Pen name | Eddie Guest |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Nationality | American |
Edgar Albert Guest (August 20, 1881, Birmingham, England – August 5, 1959, Detroit, Michigan) (aka Eddie Guest) was a prolific English-born American poet who was popular in the first half of the 20th century and became known as the People's Poet.
In 1891, Guest came with his family to the United States from England. After he began at the Detroit Free Press as a copy boy and then a reporter, his first poem appeared December 11, 1898. He became a naturalized citizen in 1902. For 40 years, Guest was widely read throughout North America, and his sentimental, optimistic poems were in the same vein as the light verse of Nick Kenny, who wrote syndicated columns during the same decades.
From his first published work in the Detroit Free Press until his death in 1959, Guest penned some 11,000 poems which were syndicated in some 300 newspapers and collected in more than 20 books, including A Heap o' Livin' (1916) and Just Folks (1917). Guest was made Poet Laureate of Michigan, the only poet to have been awarded the title.
His popularity led to a weekly Detroit radio show which he hosted from 1931 until 1942, followed by a 1951 NBC television series, A Guest in Your Home.
When Guest died in 1959, he was buried in Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery.
His great-niece Judith Guest is a successful novelist who wrote Ordinary People.
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Guest's most famous poem is the oft-quoted "Home":
Guest's most motivating poem:
You can do as much as you think you can,
But you'll never accomplish more;
If you're afraid of yourself, young man,
There's little for you in store.
For failure comes from the inside first,
It's there, if we only knew it,
And you can win, though you face the worst,
If you feel that you're going to do it.
Guest's work still occasionally appears in periodicals such as Reader's Digest, and some favorites, such as "Myself" and "Thanksgiving," are still studied today. However, in one of the most quoted appraisal of his work, Dorothy Parker reputedly said: "I'd rather flunk my Wasserman test/ Than read the poetry of Edgar Guest."
Edgar Guest is depicted on the badge worn by the crew of Count Olaf's submarine Carmelita in The Grim Grotto, the eleventh book in Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events. In the book Guest is mocked as a "writer of limited skill, who wrote awkward, tedious poetry on hopelessly sentimental topics" (The Grim Grotto (2004) page 281).