Ben Hur Lampman (1886-1954) passport photo, 1922. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
| Ben Hur Lampman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 12, 1886 Barron, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Died | March 2, 1954 (aged 67) |
| Occupation | journalist, essayist, poet |
| Nationality |
 American |
Ben Hur Lampman (August 12,[1] 1886 - March 2, 1954) was an American poet, newspaper editor, essayist, and short story writer. He was a longtime editor at The Oregonian in Portland, Oregon, and also served as state Poet Laureate.
Life[]
Lampman was born in Barron,[1] Wisconsin and raised in the small town of Neche, North Dakota, where his father, H.H. Lampman, was editor of the local newspaper.[2] As a boy, he worked in his father's print shop. He left home at age 15 and worked in the wheat country of Canada.(Citation needed)
He returned to North Dakota. At the age of 19,[3] he married Lena Sheldon (his same age), a New York City resident who had moved to the Dakotas to become a school teacher.[4]
During his time in North Dakota, he was editor of the Nelson County Arena newspaper located in Michigan, North Dakota. As of the 1930 U.S. Census,[3] he and his wife had a son and 2 daughters: Hubert Lampman, Caroline S. Lampman, and Hope H. Lampman.
Career[]
Lampman's earliest job as a writer was with the local newspaper of Gold Hill, Oregon.(Citation needed) In 1916, he moved to Portland to become a reporter for The Oregonian. In 1920 he published an account of the 1919 Centralia Massacre.(Citation needed) In 1921 he was appointed an editor of the editorial page.(Citation needed) He also wrote nature essays in The Oregonian.(Citation needed)
His stories and essays also appeared in national magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post. Some of his essays about life in Portland were collected in his 1942 book At the End of the Car Line.
Some of his papers and manuscripts are now in the collection of the library of the University of Oregon. Others reside at Lewis and Clark College and the Oregon Historical Society. The Lewis and Clark Collection also contains, on loan, from the family of Ben's long-time friend, Elizabeth Salway Ryan, Ben's typewriter, his trademark glasses, a complete set of proofs of all 14 of his books and many more items.
Lampman also wrote a column in the Oregonian entitled "Where to Bury A Dog" which is frequently cited in pet memorials. It was included in How Could I Be Forgetting, a 1926 compilation of the author's essays and poems.[5]
He is buried in Lincoln Memorial Park in Portland.[6]
Recognition[]
In 1943 he won an O. Henry Award for his short story "Blinker Was a Good Dog"[7] which originally appeared in the Atlantic Monthly.
Lampman served as Oregon Poet Laureate from 1951 until his death.[8]
In the 1980s, Elizabeth Salway Ryan wrote a biography, The Magic of Ben Hur Lampmap. The typescript was published in a limited edition by her grandson Mark Anders Kronquist and daughter Sally Ryan Tomlinson. Copies of the first edition typescript are in the collections of the University of Oregon, the Lake Oswego Public Library, the Library of Congress. and the Oregon Historical Society. In 2011, as a part of the celebration, Lewis and Clark College printed several hundred copies of the typescript.
Publications[]
Non-fiction[]
- The Tramp Printer: Sometime journey-man of the little home-town papers in days that come no more. Portland, OR: Metropolitan Press, 1934, 1944.
- At the End of the Car Line. Portland, OR: Binfords & Mort, 1942.
- The Coming of the Pond Fishes: An account of the introduction of certain spiny-rayed fishes, and other exotic species, into the waters of the lower Columbia river region and the Pacific Coast states. Portland, OR: Binfords & Mort, 1946.
- The Wild Swan, and other sketches. New York: T.Y. Crowell, 1947.
- A Leaf from French Eddy: A collection of essays on fish, anglers & fishermen. Portland, OR: Touchstone Press, 1965; San Francisco, New York, & London: Harper & Row, 1979.
- Where Would You Go? Exploring the seasons with Ben Hur Lampman. Boise, ID: R.O. Beatty, 1975.
Collected Editions[]
- How Could I Be Forgetting? Being a compilation of some of his editorial writings and poems, heretofore published principally in the Morning Oregonian. Portland, OR: Binfords & Mort, 1926; Portland, OR: Metropolitan Press; Portland, OR: Binfords & Morth, 1944, 1956.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[9]
See also[]
| Preceded by Edwin Markham |
Oregon Poet Laureate 1951-1954 |
Succeeded by Ethel Romig Fuller |
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Passport Applications, January 2, 1906-March 31, 1925; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1490, 2740 rolls http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ben_hur_lampman_passport_application_1922.jpg); General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59; National Archives, Washington, D.C.
- ↑ North Dakota Newspapers for Mountrail-Pierce Counties
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 1930; Census Place: Portland, Multnomah, Oregon; Roll: 1952; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 345; Image: 534.0
- ↑ imprints101-170
- ↑ US Catalog of Copyright Entries (Renewals) Books from 1926 (titles starting with H, I & J) from ibiblio
- ↑ "Ben Hur Lampman". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7765013. Retrieved October 24, 2010.
- ↑ O. Henry Award Winners 1919-2000 from the Random House website
- ↑ Oregon State Poet Laureate from the Library of Congress website
- ↑ Search results = au:Ben Hur Lampman, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Dec. 1, 2014.
External links[]
- Poems
- "Where to Bury a Dog"
- Ben Hur Lampman at Oregon Poetic Voices (5 poems)
- Books
- Ben Hur Lampman at Amazon.com
- About
- Ben Hur Lampman (1886-1954) at the Oregon Encyclopedia
| This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia. (view article). (view authors). |