James Church Alvord

James Church Alvord was an American poet, librettist, and short story writer.

James Church Alvord & Frederick Stevenson, An American Ace, 1919. Courtesy Library of Congress.

Life

Little information is available on Alvord.

In 1917 he was living in Littleton, and in 1918 in South Attleboro, Massachusetts.

A handful of his poems were published in Poetry magazine, and are available in its online archives. Others appeared in general magazines such as The Nation and The Century Magazine. A libretto he wrote for a "Scène Dramatique" by composer Frederick Stevenson, called "An American Ace", is available through the Library of Congress.

In addition to poetry, he also wrote reviews for the New York Times.

Before the entry of the United States into World War I, Alvord published a short story ("The Iron Cross") in a collection produced by the Christian Women's Peace Movement; but as the libretto to "American Ace" shows, by the end of the war he had adopted a different stance.

In the 1920s someone of the same name was a professor of modern languages at Centenary College of Louisiana, and wrote the lyrics of the college's Alma Mater, but it is not clear whether this was the same person.

Publications

Short fiction

• The Iron Cross. West Medford, MA: Christian Women's Peace Movement, 1915.

Libretto

• An American Ace (with music by Frederick Stevenson). Los Angeles: Wilford Music, 1919. .

See also

• List of U.S. poets

External links

Poems

• "Easter Evening"
• "The Bald Eagle," Century
• Jame Church Alvord in The Nation: "Demos Awakes," "Drum Taps to Heaven"
• James Church Alvord in Poetry: A magazine of verse, 1912-1922: "Easter Evening," "The Carpenter"

Prose

• "Hopedale's Glorified Mill-Pond"