(Nicholas) Vachel Lindsay

Bio

(1879-1931) Poet, artist. (Nicholas) Vachel Lindsay was born in Springfield, Illinois, in 1879. Lindsay graduated from high school in 1897 and attended Hiram College for three years. Seeking to become an artist, he went first to Chicago and then to New York City, but both attempts met with little success. He studied art at the New York School of Art from 1903-1904 and tried to sell his poems on the New York streets in 1905. He became quite destitute and drifted through the east several times, sometimes exchanging his poetry for food. In fact, once he saw how viable this could be, he collected his poems into a leaflet entitled “Rhymes to be Traded for Bread.” He lectured for the West Side Y. M. C. A. of New York City in the winters from 1905 to 1908. In 1906 he traveled through the southern states distributing another leaflet, “The Tree of Laughing Bells.” He also lectured for the Anti-Saloon League throughout central Illinois in 1909-1910. His first official book of poems, “General William Booth Enters Into Heaven,” was published in 1913.