Charles Badger Clark
| Charles Badger Clark | |
|---|---|
| Born |
January 1, 1883 Albia, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | September 26, 1957 |
| Residence | Custer State Park, South Dakota, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Dakota Wesleyan University (did not graduate) |
| Occupation | Poet |
Charles Badger Clark (January 1, 1883 – September 26, 1957) was an American poet.[1][2][3][4]
Early life
Charles Badger Clark was born on January 1, 1883 in Albia, Iowa.[1][5] His family moved to Dakota Territory, where his father served as a Methodist preacher in Huron, Mitchell, Deadwood and Hot Springs.[1][2][3] He dropped out of Dakota Wesleyan University after he clashed with one of its founders, C.B. Clark.[1][5] He travelled to Cuba, returned to Deadwood, South Dakota, where he contracted tuberculosis, then moved to Tombstone, Arizona to assuage his illness with the dry weather.[1][3][4][5] He returned again to South Dakota in 1910 to take care of his ailing father.[1][2][3][4] There, he contracted tuberculosis.[3]
Career
Clark published his first poetry collection in 1917. In 1925, he moved to a cabin in Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where he lived for thirty years and continued to write poetry.[1][2][4][5][6]
Clark was named the Poet Laureate of South Dakota by Governor Leslie Jensen in 1937.[2][7] His work was published in Sunset Magazine, Pacific Monthly, Arizona Highways, Colliers, Century Magazine, the Rotarian, and Scribner's.[7]
Death and legacy
Clark died on September 26, 1957.[3]
His poem entitled 'Lead by America' was performed by the Fred Waring Chorus in 1957.[5] In 1969, Bob Dylan recorded 'Spanish is the Loving Tongue'.[3] In America by Heart, Sarah Palin quotes his poem entitled 'A Cowboy's Prayer' as one of the prayers she likes to say.[8]
Bibliography
- Grass-Grown Tales (1917)
- Sun and Saddle Leather (1919)
- Spike (1925)
- When Hot Springs Was a Pup (1927)
- God of the Open
- Sky Lines and Wood Smoke (1935)
- The Story of Custer City, S.D. (1941)
- Boot and Bylines (posthumous, 1978)
- Singleton (posthumous, 1978)
Books
- Jessi Y. Sundstrom: Badger Clark, Cowboy Poet with Universal Appeal, Custer, S.D., 2004
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Badger Clark Memorial Society, biography
- 1 2 3 4 5 Dakota Wesleyan University biography
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Black Hills Visitor Magazine biography
- 1 2 3 4 Marsha Trimble, 'Who is Badger Clark?', in True West Magazine, 08/25/2009
- 1 2 3 4 5 South Dakota Public Broadcasting biography
- ↑ Badger Hole
- 1 2 Badger Clark Memorial Society, homepage
- ↑ Sarah Palin, America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2010, pp. 230-231
External links
- Works by Badger Clark at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Charles Badger Clark at Internet Archive
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