Edgar Guest



Edgar Albert Guest (August 20, 1881 - 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, becoming known as the People's Poet.

Life and career
Edgar Guest was born in 1881 in Birmingham, England, to Edwin and Julia Wayne Guest. In 1891, he immigrated with his family to the United States, settling in Detroit, Michigan.

In 1893 Edwin Guest lost his job, and Edgar began working after school. He was hired in 1895 by the Detroit Free Press as a copy boy. His father died when he was 17, and he went to work for the paper full time, working his way up to reporter.

His first poem appeared in the Free Press on December 11, 1898. In 1904 he began a weekly column, "Chaff".

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 published some 15,000 poems which were published in over 200 newspapers.

His verses were 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.

He hosted a weekly Detroit radio show from 1931 until 1942, followed by a 1951 NBC television series, A Guest in Your Home.

Guest died in 1959. He is buried in Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery.

Writing
Guest called himself "a newspaper man who wrote verses." Of his writing he said: "I take simple everyday things that happen to me and I figure it happens to a lot of other people and I make simple rhymes out of them."

Recognition
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. Guest received a mention in Lemony Snicket's The Grim Grotto, though not in a particularly favorable manner. Dorothy Parker is the reputed author of one of the most quoted appraisals of his work: "I'd rather flunk my Wasserman test/ Than read the poetry of Edgar Guest." 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," 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"

Poetry

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

Prose

 * Between You and Me: My Philosophy of Life (1938)

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Academy of American Poets.