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C. L. Edson

February 07, 2023

Charles Leroy Edson (September 6 or December 6, 1881 – December 4, 1975) was an American newspaper columnist, humorist, and poet whose work appeared in New York papers in the first decades of the 20th century. He wrote a guide to writing newspaper humor, The Gentle Art of Columning: A Treatise on Comic Journalism (1920), and an autobiography, The Great American Ass (1926). Edson also wrote for several national publications.

C. L. Edson
BornCharles Leroy Edson
(1881-09-06)September 6, 1881 or (1881-12-06)December 6, 1881
Wilber, Nebraska, U.S.
Died(1975-12-04)December 4, 1975
(aged 93 or 94)
Topeka, Kansas, U.S.
Occupation
  • Columnist
  • humorist
  • author
  • poet
EducationUniversity of Kansas
Period1900–1937
SpouseLena Fern Bear

Edson's career suffered after he published his autobiography, which included an extensive personal attack on Franklin P. Adams, a New York colleague. In 1935 he joined the Federal Writers Project in Topeka, Kansas and stayed there until 1937. Thereafter, little is known about the specifics of his life, though in 1963, he was reported to be living in relative obscurity and poverty in a Topeka hotel. After the building was demolished, he resided at a nursing home in the city until his death in 1975.

Early life and education

Edson was born in Wilber, Nebraska, son of James Bassett and Emma Lillian (Thomas) Edson, and uncle of William Alden Edson.[1] His birth date is variously listed as September 6 or December 6, 1881.[2] His father was a descendant of John Alden, signatory of the Mayflower Compact.[3] The Edson side of the family also dates to early colonial times, with Deacon Samuel Edson arriving in Salem, Massachusetts in 1639.[4] Edson's father was a wealthy farmer and merchant, but imposed an austere lifestyle on his family. In 1918, Edson's mother successfully sued his father for half of his net worth.

Edson attended public schools in Cuba, Kansas, and enrolled at the University of Kansas in 1900. While there he started a literary magazine called The Automobile. He printed the magazine himself, illustrating it with woodcuts carved with a penknife.[5] In 1901, Carl Sandburg, editor of a college literary magazine in Galesburg, Illinois, saw an issue of The Automobile. Sandburg's Lombard Review reprinted one of Edson's poems and, in a separate notice, praised Edson's work.[6] Edson and Sandburg exchanged letters, sharing an enthusiasm for the ideas of Elbert Hubbard, the poetry of Walt Whitman, and socialism. They last corresponded in 1942.

Career

Early newspaper work

In 1905, Edson married Lena Fern Bear. That same year, he began working for the Kansas City Star, first as a reporter but soon as a humor columnist. He worked for the Star for the next two years, then moved to the Arkansas Ozarks in 1907 with the intention of starting an artists' and writers' colony.[7][8] Although at least ten people spent time there,[9] most soon returned to the city. Edson left but regularly returned to his farm there over the next decade, observing the customs, attitudes, and speech patterns of his rural neighbors, which formed the basis for much of his later writing.

By 1908 the Edsons had returned to Kansas City where their only child, Helen Poe Edson was born. Edson moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in the spring of 1910 to become the new associate editor of the Tulsa Post and their first resident light verse poet, publishing 10 to 15 poems a week. Years later, Edson claimed to have published 5,000 poems in his lifetime.[10]

In 1911, Edson moved to Girard, Kansas to work for the socialist weekly Appeal to Reason. At this time, the publication was near the height of its popularity, with a national readership of 475,000.[11] But just a few months after Edson joined the staff the paper went into a crisis due to its coverage of what turned out to be a false story.[12] In the ensuing scandal, Appeal to Reason's circulation suffered and Edson was dismissed. He was soon rehired at the Kansas City Star, and was persuaded by his editor to write about his time at Appeal to Reason. Edson wrote the story, the Star was sued as a result, and he was fired.[13]

New York columnist

Leaving his wife and daughter in Arkansas,[14] Edson went to New York in 1912 where he began writing a humor column called “An Arkansas Man on Broadway” for the New York Evening Mail. Edson joined a staff that included columnist Franklin P. Adams, muckraking journalist Zoe Beckley, illustrator Rube Goldberg, sports writer Grantland Rice,[15] and drama critic Brock Pemberton. For his column, Edson adopted the persona of an Ozark mountaineer commenting on Manhattan life from a country perspective. In 1914, after Adams left the paper, Edson was selected to take over his column, “Always in Good Humor.” [16] Edson wrote the column for less than a year, giving it up to return to Arkansas.

In 1916 Edson returned to New York to write an art and culture column for the New York Morning Telegraph. He focused mostly on Greenwich Village, covering local and visiting artists and writers including Ray Stannard Baker, Albert Boni, Guido Bruno, Max Eastman, Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, Harry Kemp, Alfred Kreymborg, Amy Lowell, Neysa McMein, Alla Nazimova, and Mary Pickford. Edson was critical of the bohemians living in Greenwich Village, especially Guido Bruno, "the Barnum of Bohemia," who turned his Washington Square garret into a tourist attraction and was receiving financial backing from the wife and son of the owner of the Morning Telegraph.[17] Edson was fired from the Morning Telegraph in July 1916 for insubordination.[18]

Mooseheart

In 1917 Edson moved to Aurora, Illinois to work as editor of the monthly magazine for Mooseheart, a home for disadvantaged children recently opened by James J. Davis, the Director General of the Loyal Order of Moose.[19] During this time Edson also ghostwrote Davis's autobiography, The Iron Puddler, which described Davis's experiences as a young Welsh immigrant worker in a Pennsylvania steel mill.[20] The book was published in 1922, one year after Davis's appointment to serve as United States Secretary of Labor.

The Gentle Art of Columning

Edson moved back to New York in 1918 to begin the most successful period of his career. Over the next half-decade he published widely in national publications, wrote another column for the Evening Mail and published The Gentle Art of Columning: A Treatise on Comic Journalism (1920) with prefaces by Don Marquis, Franklin P. Adams, Christopher Morley, and George Horace Lorimer. Edson was invited to join the Lotos Club, one of the oldest literary clubs in the United States, fondly called the "Ace of Clubs" by early member Mark Twain.[21] The Gentle Art of Columning sold well and was still being used as a textbook in journalism classes several decades later.[2]

After the success of his first book, Edson moved to Charleston, South Carolina with the intention of giving up newspaper work to write serious literature.[22] He worked on his autobiography, but also became associate editor for the Charleston News and Courier. He wrote a column for the paper and later simultaneously wrote a column for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. He also sold a feature called “Tongue Twisters” to the Adams Newspaper Syndicate and wrote the six-volume Edson Pocket Library.

The Great American Ass

In 1926, while still in Charleston, Edson published his autobiography. He wanted to call it The Autobiography of an Ass and release it under his own name, but Brentano's, his publisher, overruled him on both counts. The book was published as The Great American Ass by Anonymous, with the idea that curiosity about the identity of the author would stimulate sales. In a 1928 letter to Robert Marks, a Charleston friend, Edson vented his frustration at how the book had been handled. "It needs revision damn badly. For instance, Sam Ornitz edited the opening paragraph to say that “Wilber, Nebraska, is not to be found on any map, it is exotically discovered for you in the works of Willa Cather…” The facts are, Wilber is the county seat of Saline County, and I was actually born there, and Willa Cather actually lived there at the same time. Sam supposed, of course, that I was just romancing. And without investigating, he announced there was no such town as Wilber, Saline County, Nebraska. All the critics knew better...therefore they concluded I was a liar in denying the existence of the town, a fool in not knowing the town existed, and finally, a coward in writing anonymously—all of which was not my fault at all."[23]

The Great American Ass was a critical failure, but despite Edson's complaint, better editing would not have disposed critics more kindly to the story he chose to tell. The book catalogs the pretentious and petty tendencies of the narrator's Puritan ancestors, focusing on his father as the main villain. Edson also ascribes these traits to his New York colleague Franklin P. Adams, exposing him as a Chicago native who adopted the tastes, dress, and accent of the Harvard elite only upon arrival in New York. Adams was a popular columnist at the time and one of the founders of the Algonquin Round Table.

Despite mostly negative reviews, The Great American Ass generated enough sales to reach the New York Tribune's nonfiction best seller list.[24] Time described it as the “freakish self-history” of a man "with passionate grievances, Tom o' Bedlam's honesty and a spilling store of acrid Americana to relate… The father looms as a monument of malicious, brooding egotism…"[25] On the other hand, O. O. McIntyre called it “…as honest a book as ever written,”[26] and Harold Trump Mason, owner of the avant-garde Centaur Press, sent a copy to D. H. Lawrence.[27]

Later years and death

Edson left Charleston for New York in 1927 in an attempt to revive his career, but his recent publishing failure and long absence from the city undermined his efforts. Times were changing as well, and his style of writing was losing its appeal.[28] He earned some money by ghostwriting the story of prize fighter Abe the Newsboy.[2]The Life Story of Abe the Newsboy was published in 1930 and still in print in 1960, but Edson received no royalties. By the end of his final stay in New York, Edson was destitute. Robert Marks reported to a mutual acquaintance: “I feel sorry as hell for old Edson. I've seen him fairly often, and while I like him a lot I think he's pretty hopeless. He is neither fish, flesh, fowl, nor good red herring. He has made enemies of everyone, has no practical sense, and little social poise.”[29]

In 1930 Edson moved to Olathe, Kansas in search of work.[30] He lived with relatives, occasionally selling a story or a poem. In 1935 he moved to Topeka, Kansas and joined the Federal Writers' Project. He worked on the Topeka City Guide and the Kansas volume of The American Guide,[2] but regularly clashed with his supervisors, and in 1937 he was dismissed.[31]

In 1963, a reporter for the Kansas City Star found Edson living on a government relief check in a Topeka railroader's hotel slated for demolition.[32] The reporter wrote a feature on Edson, presenting him as a once-famous columnist now facing eviction and an uncertain future.[33] The Star story was syndicated nationally by the Associated Press, putting Edson briefly in the national spotlight. Twelve years later, Edson died at a nursing home in Topeka on December 4, 1975.[34] Depending on varying reports of his birth date, he died either at the age of 93 or 94.

Selected works

  • 1908: “Ballad of Kansas City,” updated by the author and reprinted by the Kansas City Star in 1946 as “Kansas City Saga.”
  • 1908-09: “An Experiment in Living,” an eight-part series published in the Kansas City Star, based on Edson's experiences in the Arkansas Ozarks.
  • 1914: Sunflowers,: A Book of Kansas Poems, edited by Willard Wattles. Edson was the major contributor (with 17 poems) in a collection including works by Vachel Lindsay, John Greenleaf Whittier, William Allen White, Eugene Fitch Ware, and Harry Kemp.
  • 1916: “Comings and Goings In and About Manhattan,” a New York Telegraph column covering art and culture.
  • 1920: The Gentle Art of Columning: A Treatise on Comic Journalism. Brentano's, New York.
  • 1922: The Iron Puddler, ghostwritten autobiography of Secretary of Labor James J. Davis.
  • 1924: The Edson Pocket Library, a set of six short (32-48 pages) books. Three are long poems, two are political fables, and one is a collection of light verse.
  • 1926: The Great American Ass: An autobiography, by Anonymous. Brentano's, New York.

References

  1. ^ Edson, George T. (1926). Nathan Edson and His Descendants (First ed.). Filley, Nebraska: The Filley Spotlight. p. 27.
  2. ^ a b c d "Charles Leroy Edson Papers". Kansas Historical Society. Retrieved July 4, 2022.
  3. ^ Edson, George T. (1915). Genealogical notes, containing brief data of sundry ascendant lines of the author's family. Compiled from various sources (1st ed.). Burchard, Nebraska: The Times Print Shop. p. 15.
  4. ^ Bell, Jonathan Wesley (1976). The Kansas Art Reader. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas. p. 388. ISBN 0936352027.
  5. ^ Edson, C. L. (1926). "The Great American Ass": An autobiography. New York: Brentano's. pp. 113–114.
  6. ^ Sandburg, Carl (January 1902). "Edson and Automobile". Lombard Review. XVIII (5): 98–99.
  7. ^ Edson, C. L. (December 22, 1907). "An Experiment in Living: The Adventures of a Young Couple Who, Discontented with Existence in the City, Sought Happiness in the Simple Life". Kansas City Star. Accessed Nov 2013.
  8. ^ Sobol, Louis (November 22, 1937). "The Voice of Broadway". Kansas City Journal-Post.
  9. ^ H. G. (August 20, 1911). "Writer Folk of the Ozarks: How the mountains have become a lodestone for the litterateurs". Kansas City Star.
  10. ^ Gusewelle, C. W. (March 10, 1963). "Leaving a Legacy of Verses, a Poet Looks Back over His Years". Kansas City Star.
  11. ^ Shore, Elliott (1988). Talkin' Socialism: J. A. Wayland and the radical press. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. p. 209. ISBN 0-7006-0521-5.
  12. ^ Whitehead, Fred; Muhrer, Verle (1992). Freethought on the American Frontier. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books. pp. 255–259. ISBN 0879756985.
  13. ^ Edson, C. L. (1926). "The Great American Ass": An autobiography. New York: Brentano's. p. 185.
  14. ^ Edson, C. L. (1926). "The Great American Ass": An autobiography. New York: Brentano's. pp. 186–187.
  15. ^ Masson, Thomas Lansing (1922). Our American Humorists. New York: Moffat, Yard, and Company. p. 23.
  16. ^ McIntyre, O. O. (February 15, 1915). "Great White Way". Washington Herald. Accessed December 8, 2013.
  17. ^ Parry, Albert (1933). Garrets and Pretenders: A history of bohemianism in America. New York: Cosimo Classics. p. 310. ISBN 9781596050907.
  18. ^ Schick, Will; Schick, Luz (Spring 2014). "Carl Sandburg's First Big Fan: The Story of C. L. Edson" (PDF). Inklings and Idlings: Newsletter of the Carl Sandburg Site Association: 3. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  19. ^ . Welcome to Mooseheart Child City & School. Mooseheart Child City & School, Inc. Archived from the original on September 8, 2015. Retrieved September 8, 2015.
  20. ^ Bell, Jonathan Wesley (1976). The Kansas Art Reader. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas. p. 388. ISBN 0936352027.
  21. ^ "The Lotos Club: Club history". Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  22. ^ Edson, C.L. (1920). The Gentle Art of Columning: A Treatise on Comic Journalism. New York: Brentano's. p. 21. Retrieved September 8, 2015.
  23. ^ Letter from C. L. Edson to Robert Marks, February 7, 1928, Robert Walter Marks Papers, Special Collections, College of Charleston Library, Charleston, South Carolina.
  24. ^ Review of The Great American Ass by Robert Marks, written for the October 24, 1926 issue of the Charleston Sunday Budget. Robert Walter Marks Papers, Special Collections, College of Charleston Library, Charleston, South Carolina.
  25. ^ "Pretty Crazy". Time. 8 (17): 44. October 25, 1926.
  26. ^ McIntyre, O. O. (February 2, 1928). "New York Day by Day". McNaught Syndicate.
  27. ^ Boulton, James T.; Boulton, Margaret; Lacy, Gerald M. (2001). The letters of D.H. Lawrence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 27–28. ISBN 0521006988.
  28. ^ Bell, Jonathan Wesley (1976). The Kansas Art Reader. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas. p. 390. ISBN 0936352027.
  29. ^ Letter from Robert Marks to Thomas Tobias, March 12, 1928, Robert Walter Marks Papers, Special Collections, College of Charleston Library, Charleston, South Carolina.
  30. ^ Bell, Jonathan Wesley (1976). The Kansas Art Reader. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas. p. 390. ISBN 0936352027.
  31. ^ Madway, Lorraine (Summer 2012). "Documenting Struggle and Resilience: The Federal Writers' Project Records for Kansas" (PDF). Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains. 35: 106. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  32. ^ Bell, Jonathan Wesley (1976). The Kansas Art Reader. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas. p. 390. ISBN 0936352027.
  33. ^ Gusewelle, C. W. (March 10, 1963). "Leaving a Legacy of Verses, a Poet Looks Back Over His Years". Kansas City Star.
  34. ^ Bell, Jonathan Wesley (1976). The Kansas Art Reader. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas. p. 390. ISBN 0936352027.

External links

February 07, 2023
edson, charles, leroy, edson, september, december, 1881, december, 1975, american, newspaper, columnist, humorist, poet, whose, work, appeared, york, papers, first, decades, 20th, century, wrote, guide, writing, newspaper, humor, gentle, columning, treatise, c. Charles Leroy Edson September 6 or December 6 1881 December 4 1975 was an American newspaper columnist humorist and poet whose work appeared in New York papers in the first decades of the 20th century He wrote a guide to writing newspaper humor The Gentle Art of Columning A Treatise on Comic Journalism 1920 and an autobiography The Great American Ass 1926 Edson also wrote for several national publications C L EdsonBornCharles Leroy Edson 1881 09 06 September 6 1881 or 1881 12 06 December 6 1881Wilber Nebraska U S Died 1975 12 04 December 4 1975 aged 93 or 94 Topeka Kansas U S OccupationColumnisthumoristauthorpoetEducationUniversity of KansasPeriod1900 1937SpouseLena Fern BearEdson s career suffered after he published his autobiography which included an extensive personal attack on Franklin P Adams a New York colleague In 1935 he joined the Federal Writers Project in Topeka Kansas and stayed there until 1937 Thereafter little is known about the specifics of his life though in 1963 he was reported to be living in relative obscurity and poverty in a Topeka hotel After the building was demolished he resided at a nursing home in the city until his death in 1975 Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 2 1 Early newspaper work 2 2 New York columnist 2 3 Mooseheart 2 4 The Gentle Art of Columning 2 5 The Great American Ass 3 Later years and death 4 Selected works 5 References 6 External linksEarly life and education EditEdson was born in Wilber Nebraska son of James Bassett and Emma Lillian Thomas Edson and uncle of William Alden Edson 1 His birth date is variously listed as September 6 or December 6 1881 2 His father was a descendant of John Alden signatory of the Mayflower Compact 3 The Edson side of the family also dates to early colonial times with Deacon Samuel Edson arriving in Salem Massachusetts in 1639 4 Edson s father was a wealthy farmer and merchant but imposed an austere lifestyle on his family In 1918 Edson s mother successfully sued his father for half of his net worth Edson attended public schools in Cuba Kansas and enrolled at the University of Kansas in 1900 While there he started a literary magazine called The Automobile He printed the magazine himself illustrating it with woodcuts carved with a penknife 5 In 1901 Carl Sandburg editor of a college literary magazine in Galesburg Illinois saw an issue of The Automobile Sandburg s Lombard Review reprinted one of Edson s poems and in a separate notice praised Edson s work 6 Edson and Sandburg exchanged letters sharing an enthusiasm for the ideas of Elbert Hubbard the poetry of Walt Whitman and socialism They last corresponded in 1942 Career EditEarly newspaper work Edit In 1905 Edson married Lena Fern Bear That same year he began working for the Kansas City Star first as a reporter but soon as a humor columnist He worked for the Star for the next two years then moved to the Arkansas Ozarks in 1907 with the intention of starting an artists and writers colony 7 8 Although at least ten people spent time there 9 most soon returned to the city Edson left but regularly returned to his farm there over the next decade observing the customs attitudes and speech patterns of his rural neighbors which formed the basis for much of his later writing By 1908 the Edsons had returned to Kansas City where their only child Helen Poe Edson was born Edson moved to Tulsa Oklahoma in the spring of 1910 to become the new associate editor of the Tulsa Post and their first resident light verse poet publishing 10 to 15 poems a week Years later Edson claimed to have published 5 000 poems in his lifetime 10 In 1911 Edson moved to Girard Kansas to work for the socialist weekly Appeal to Reason At this time the publication was near the height of its popularity with a national readership of 475 000 11 But just a few months after Edson joined the staff the paper went into a crisis due to its coverage of what turned out to be a false story 12 In the ensuing scandal Appeal to Reason s circulation suffered and Edson was dismissed He was soon rehired at the Kansas City Star and was persuaded by his editor to write about his time at Appeal to Reason Edson wrote the story the Star was sued as a result and he was fired 13 New York columnist Edit Leaving his wife and daughter in Arkansas 14 Edson went to New York in 1912 where he began writing a humor column called An Arkansas Man on Broadway for the New York Evening Mail Edson joined a staff that included columnist Franklin P Adams muckraking journalist Zoe Beckley illustrator Rube Goldberg sports writer Grantland Rice 15 and drama critic Brock Pemberton For his column Edson adopted the persona of an Ozark mountaineer commenting on Manhattan life from a country perspective In 1914 after Adams left the paper Edson was selected to take over his column Always in Good Humor 16 Edson wrote the column for less than a year giving it up to return to Arkansas In 1916 Edson returned to New York to write an art and culture column for the New York Morning Telegraph He focused mostly on Greenwich Village covering local and visiting artists and writers including Ray Stannard Baker Albert Boni Guido Bruno Max Eastman Elsa von Freytag Loringhoven Harry Kemp Alfred Kreymborg Amy Lowell Neysa McMein Alla Nazimova and Mary Pickford Edson was critical of the bohemians living in Greenwich Village especially Guido Bruno the Barnum of Bohemia who turned his Washington Square garret into a tourist attraction and was receiving financial backing from the wife and son of the owner of the Morning Telegraph 17 Edson was fired from the Morning Telegraph in July 1916 for insubordination 18 Mooseheart Edit In 1917 Edson moved to Aurora Illinois to work as editor of the monthly magazine for Mooseheart a home for disadvantaged children recently opened by James J Davis the Director General of the Loyal Order of Moose 19 During this time Edson also ghostwrote Davis s autobiography The Iron Puddler which described Davis s experiences as a young Welsh immigrant worker in a Pennsylvania steel mill 20 The book was published in 1922 one year after Davis s appointment to serve as United States Secretary of Labor The Gentle Art of Columning Edit Edson moved back to New York in 1918 to begin the most successful period of his career Over the next half decade he published widely in national publications wrote another column for the Evening Mail and published The Gentle Art of Columning A Treatise on Comic Journalism 1920 with prefaces by Don Marquis Franklin P Adams Christopher Morley and George Horace Lorimer Edson was invited to join the Lotos Club one of the oldest literary clubs in the United States fondly called the Ace of Clubs by early member Mark Twain 21 The Gentle Art of Columning sold well and was still being used as a textbook in journalism classes several decades later 2 After the success of his first book Edson moved to Charleston South Carolina with the intention of giving up newspaper work to write serious literature 22 He worked on his autobiography but also became associate editor for the Charleston News and Courier He wrote a column for the paper and later simultaneously wrote a column for the Norfolk Virginian Pilot He also sold a feature called Tongue Twisters to the Adams Newspaper Syndicate and wrote the six volume Edson Pocket Library The Great American Ass Edit In 1926 while still in Charleston Edson published his autobiography He wanted to call it The Autobiography of an Ass and release it under his own name but Brentano s his publisher overruled him on both counts The book was published as The Great American Ass by Anonymous with the idea that curiosity about the identity of the author would stimulate sales In a 1928 letter to Robert Marks a Charleston friend Edson vented his frustration at how the book had been handled It needs revision damn badly For instance Sam Ornitz edited the opening paragraph to say that Wilber Nebraska is not to be found on any map it is exotically discovered for you in the works of Willa Cather The facts are Wilber is the county seat of Saline County and I was actually born there and Willa Cather actually lived there at the same time Sam supposed of course that I was just romancing And without investigating he announced there was no such town as Wilber Saline County Nebraska All the critics knew better therefore they concluded I was a liar in denying the existence of the town a fool in not knowing the town existed and finally a coward in writing anonymously all of which was not my fault at all 23 The Great American Ass was a critical failure but despite Edson s complaint better editing would not have disposed critics more kindly to the story he chose to tell The book catalogs the pretentious and petty tendencies of the narrator s Puritan ancestors focusing on his father as the main villain Edson also ascribes these traits to his New York colleague Franklin P Adams exposing him as a Chicago native who adopted the tastes dress and accent of the Harvard elite only upon arrival in New York Adams was a popular columnist at the time and one of the founders of the Algonquin Round Table Despite mostly negative reviews The Great American Ass generated enough sales to reach the New York Tribune s nonfiction best seller list 24 Time described it as the freakish self history of a man with passionate grievances Tom o Bedlam s honesty and a spilling store of acrid Americana to relate The father looms as a monument of malicious brooding egotism 25 On the other hand O O McIntyre called it as honest a book as ever written 26 and Harold Trump Mason owner of the avant garde Centaur Press sent a copy to D H Lawrence 27 Later years and death EditEdson left Charleston for New York in 1927 in an attempt to revive his career but his recent publishing failure and long absence from the city undermined his efforts Times were changing as well and his style of writing was losing its appeal 28 He earned some money by ghostwriting the story of prize fighter Abe the Newsboy 2 The Life Story of Abe the Newsboy was published in 1930 and still in print in 1960 but Edson received no royalties By the end of his final stay in New York Edson was destitute Robert Marks reported to a mutual acquaintance I feel sorry as hell for old Edson I ve seen him fairly often and while I like him a lot I think he s pretty hopeless He is neither fish flesh fowl nor good red herring He has made enemies of everyone has no practical sense and little social poise 29 In 1930 Edson moved to Olathe Kansas in search of work 30 He lived with relatives occasionally selling a story or a poem In 1935 he moved to Topeka Kansas and joined the Federal Writers Project He worked on the Topeka City Guide and the Kansas volume of The American Guide 2 but regularly clashed with his supervisors and in 1937 he was dismissed 31 In 1963 a reporter for the Kansas City Star found Edson living on a government relief check in a Topeka railroader s hotel slated for demolition 32 The reporter wrote a feature on Edson presenting him as a once famous columnist now facing eviction and an uncertain future 33 The Star story was syndicated nationally by the Associated Press putting Edson briefly in the national spotlight Twelve years later Edson died at a nursing home in Topeka on December 4 1975 34 Depending on varying reports of his birth date he died either at the age of 93 or 94 Selected works Edit1908 Ballad of Kansas City updated by the author and reprinted by the Kansas City Star in 1946 as Kansas City Saga 1908 09 An Experiment in Living an eight part series published in the Kansas City Star based on Edson s experiences in the Arkansas Ozarks 1914 Sunflowers A Book of Kansas Poems edited by Willard Wattles Edson was the major contributor with 17 poems in a collection including works by Vachel Lindsay John Greenleaf Whittier William Allen White Eugene Fitch Ware and Harry Kemp 1916 Comings and Goings In and About Manhattan a New York Telegraph column covering art and culture 1920 The Gentle Art of Columning A Treatise on Comic Journalism Brentano s New York 1922 The Iron Puddler ghostwritten autobiography of Secretary of Labor James J Davis 1924 The Edson Pocket Library a set of six short 32 48 pages books Three are long poems two are political fables and one is a collection of light verse 1926 The Great American Ass An autobiography by Anonymous Brentano s New York References Edit Edson George T 1926 Nathan Edson and His Descendants First ed Filley Nebraska The Filley Spotlight p 27 a b c d Charles Leroy Edson Papers Kansas Historical Society Retrieved July 4 2022 Edson George T 1915 Genealogical notes containing brief data of sundry ascendant lines of the author s family Compiled from various sources 1st ed Burchard Nebraska The Times Print Shop p 15 Bell Jonathan Wesley 1976 The Kansas Art Reader Lawrence Kansas University of Kansas p 388 ISBN 0936352027 Edson C L 1926 The Great American Ass An autobiography New York Brentano s pp 113 114 Sandburg Carl January 1902 Edson and Automobile Lombard Review XVIII 5 98 99 Edson C L December 22 1907 An Experiment in Living The Adventures of a Young Couple Who Discontented with Existence in the City Sought Happiness in the Simple Life Kansas City Star Accessed Nov 2013 Sobol Louis November 22 1937 The Voice of Broadway Kansas City Journal Post H G August 20 1911 Writer Folk of the Ozarks How the mountains have become a lodestone for the litterateurs Kansas City Star Gusewelle C W March 10 1963 Leaving a Legacy of Verses a Poet Looks Back over His Years Kansas City Star Shore Elliott 1988 Talkin Socialism J A Wayland and the radical press Lawrence Kansas University Press of Kansas p 209 ISBN 0 7006 0521 5 Whitehead Fred Muhrer Verle 1992 Freethought on the American Frontier Buffalo New York Prometheus Books pp 255 259 ISBN 0879756985 Edson C L 1926 The Great American Ass An autobiography New York Brentano s p 185 Edson C L 1926 The Great American Ass An autobiography New York Brentano s pp 186 187 Masson Thomas Lansing 1922 Our American Humorists New York Moffat Yard and Company p 23 McIntyre O O February 15 1915 Great White Way Washington Herald Accessed December 8 2013 Parry Albert 1933 Garrets and Pretenders A history of bohemianism in America New York Cosimo Classics p 310 ISBN 9781596050907 Schick Will Schick Luz Spring 2014 Carl Sandburg s First Big Fan The Story of C L Edson PDF Inklings and Idlings Newsletter of the Carl Sandburg Site Association 3 Retrieved August 6 2015 History of Mooseheart Welcome to Mooseheart Child City amp School Mooseheart Child City amp School Inc Archived from the original on September 8 2015 Retrieved September 8 2015 Bell Jonathan Wesley 1976 The Kansas Art Reader Lawrence Kansas University of Kansas p 388 ISBN 0936352027 The Lotos Club Club history Retrieved August 7 2015 Edson C L 1920 The Gentle Art of Columning A Treatise on Comic Journalism New York Brentano s p 21 Retrieved September 8 2015 Letter from C L Edson to Robert Marks February 7 1928 Robert Walter Marks Papers Special Collections College of Charleston Library Charleston South Carolina Review of The Great American Ass by Robert Marks written for the October 24 1926 issue of the Charleston Sunday Budget Robert Walter Marks Papers Special Collections College of Charleston Library Charleston South Carolina Pretty Crazy Time 8 17 44 October 25 1926 McIntyre O O February 2 1928 New York Day by Day McNaught Syndicate Boulton James T Boulton Margaret Lacy Gerald M 2001 The letters of D H Lawrence Cambridge Cambridge University Press pp 27 28 ISBN 0521006988 Bell Jonathan Wesley 1976 The Kansas Art Reader Lawrence Kansas University of Kansas p 390 ISBN 0936352027 Letter from Robert Marks to Thomas Tobias March 12 1928 Robert Walter Marks Papers Special Collections College of Charleston Library Charleston South Carolina Bell Jonathan Wesley 1976 The Kansas Art Reader Lawrence Kansas University of Kansas p 390 ISBN 0936352027 Madway Lorraine Summer 2012 Documenting Struggle and Resilience The Federal Writers Project Records for Kansas PDF Kansas History A Journal of the Central Plains 35 106 Retrieved August 6 2015 Bell Jonathan Wesley 1976 The Kansas Art Reader Lawrence Kansas University of Kansas p 390 ISBN 0936352027 Gusewelle C W March 10 1963 Leaving a Legacy of Verses a Poet Looks Back Over His Years Kansas City Star Bell Jonathan Wesley 1976 The Kansas Art Reader Lawrence Kansas University of Kansas p 390 ISBN 0936352027 External links EditWorks by or about C L Edson at Internet Archive Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title C L Edson amp oldid 1096387313, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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