Edgar Guest

Edgar Guest
Born	Edgar Albert Guest 20 August 1881(1881-08-20) Birmingham, England
Died	5 August 1959(1959-08-05) (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.

Excerpts

Guest's most famous poem is the oft-quoted "Home":

It don't make a difference how rich ye get t' be'

How much yer chairs and tables cost, how great the luxury;

It ain't home t' ye, though it be the palace of a king,

Until somehow yer soul is sort o' wrapped round everything.

Within the walls there's got t' be some babies born an' then...

Right there ye've got t' bring em up t' women good, an' men;

Home ain't a place that gold can buy or get up in a minute;

Afore it's home there's got t' be a heap o' living in it."

--Excerpt from "Home," It takes A Heap o' Livin' (1916)

When you're up against a trouble,

Meet it squarely, face to face,

Lift your chin, and set your shoulders,

Plant your feet and take a brace,

When it's vain to try to dodge it,

Do the best that you can do.

You may fail, but you may conquer--

See it through!

--Excerpt from "See It Through"

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.

--Excerpt from "The Secret of the Ages" (1926)

Reputation

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 apraisale of his work, Dorothy Parker reputedly said: "I'd rather flunk my Wasserman test/ Than read the poetry of Edgar Guest."

In popular culture

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).

Works

• A Dozen New Poems (1920)
• A Heap o' Livin' (1916)
• All That Matters (1922)
• All in a Lifetime (1938)
• Between You and Me: My Philosophy of Life (1938)
• Collected Verse of Edgar Guest (1934)
• Faith (1932)
• Harbor Lights of Home (1928)
• Home Rhymes, from Breakfast Table Chat (1909)
• Just Folks (1917)
• Just Glad Tidings (1916)
• Life's Highway (1933)
• Living the Years (1949)
• Mother (1925)
• Over Here (1918)
• Poems for the Home Folks (1930)
• Rhymes of Childhood (1928)
• Sunny Songs (1920)
• The Friendly Way (1931)
• The Light of Faith (1926)
• The Passing Throng (1923)
• The Path to Home (1919)
• Today and Tomorrow (1942)
• When Day Is Done (1921)
• You (1927)
• The Secret of The Ages (1926)

See also

Poetry portal

• Franklin Pierce Adams
• Franklyn MacCormack
• Nick Kenny
• O. O. McIntyre
• William McGonagall

External links

• Works by Edgar Guest at Project Gutenberg
• American Academy of Poets: Edgar Guest
• Sofine's Edgar Guest Collection

Persondata
Name	Guest, Edgar
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	August 20, 1881
Place of birth	Birmingham, England
Date of death	August 5, 1959
Place of death	Detroit, Michigan