Ben Hur Lampman (August 12,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. 1886 – January 24, 1954) was an American newspaper editor, essayist,

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

writer, and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

. He was a longtime associate editor at ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...

'' in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, and he served as

Poet laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

from 1951 until his death.

Early life

Ben Lampman was born on August 12, 1886, in

Barron, Wisconsin Barron is a city in Barron County (of which it is the county seat), in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 3,423 at the 2010 census. The city is surrounded by the Town of Barron. History Originally named Quaderer's Camp after local l ...

. His father, H. H. Lampman, owned a newspaper in Barron. The family moved to

Neche, North Dakota Neche ( ) is a city in Pembina County, North Dakota, United States. It sits on the banks of the Pembina River. The population was 344 at the 2020 census. History Neche was laid out in 1882. The name is said to come from the Ojibwe word ''nidji ...

, when Ben was 4 years old, and his father founded another newspaper in Neche after arriving there. 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 Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. He returned to North Dakota. At the age of 19,1930; Census Place: Portland, Multnomah, Oregon; Roll: 1952; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 345; Image: 534.0 he married Lena Sheldon (his same age), a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

resident who had moved to the Dakotas to become a school teacher. They remained married for the remainder of his life. His brother Rex Lampman was a columnist for the ''

Oregon Journal ''The Oregon Journal'' was Portland, Oregon's daily afternoon newspaper from 1902 to 1982. The ''Journal'' was founded in Portland by C. S. "Sam" Jackson, publisher of Pendleton, Oregon's ''East Oregonian'' newspaper, after a group of Portlander ...

'' and, later, the '' Pittsburg Leader''.

Career

His first work in newspaper writing took place when he was 19 years old (1905 or 1906), when he and another young man co-founded the ''Michigan City Arena'', a newspaper in Michigan City, North Dakota. He worked on the ''Arena'' for seven years, writing editorials and columns and helping to manage the business. In 1912, Lampman moved from North Dakota to Oregon to become manager and publisher of the ''Gold Hill News'', a weekly newspaper in

Gold Hill, Oregon Gold Hill is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, in the United States. As of the 2010 census the population was 1,335. It is along a bend of the Rogue River. History The City's name comes from a nearby hill that was the location of a 19th-cen ...

. His writing caught the attention of Paul Kelty, then the news editor of Portland's ''

'', who recommended Lampman to editor-in-chief

Edgar B. Piper Edgar is a commonly used English given name, from an Anglo-Saxon name ''Eadgar'' (composed of '' ead'' "rich, prosperous" and ''gar'' "spear"). Like most Anglo-Saxon names, it fell out of use by the later medieval period; it was, however, rev ...

. He was hired, moved to Portland, and began working for ''The Oregonian'' on February 1, 1916. For his first 14 months at the paper, he covered police-related news, but also wrote editorials from time to time. In 1920, he published an account of the 1919 Centralia Massacre. In additional to part-time editorial writing, he worked as a reporter and feature writer for ''The Oregonian'' until 1922, when the paper made him a full-time editorial writer and an associate editor. He also wrote nature essays in ''The Oregonian''. His stories and essays also appeared in national magazines such as the ''

Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...

''. Some of his essays about life in Portland were collected in his 1942 book ''At the End of the Car Line''. In 1943 he won an

O. Henry Award The O. Henry Award is an annual American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American short-story writer O. Henry. The ''PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories'' is an annual collection of the year's twenty best ...

for his short story "Blinker Was a Good Dog" which originally appeared in the ''

Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

''. Some of his papers and manuscripts are now in the collection of the library of the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

. 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. In total, he authored six books. Lampman was still an associate editor at ''The Oregonian'' in early 1951, when a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

took him off the job, eventually leading to retirement. He was named

poet laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

of Oregon on February 20, 1951. In the 1980s, Elizabeth Salway Ryan wrote a biography, The Magic of Ben Hur Lampman. The typescript was published in a very limited edition by 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.

Family

As of the 1930 U.S. Census, he and his wife, Lena, had one son and two daughters: Herbert Lampman, Caroline S. Lampman, and Hope H. Lampman. Son Herbert Sheldon Lampman (March 18, 1907 – June 30, 1943), a naturalist, also became a writer and journalist, and was ''The Oregonian'' wildlife editor and one of its feature writers for about 12 years until his death in 1943 at the age of just 36.

Death

Lampman died in Portland on January 24, 1954. He had been in a nursing home for the last two years of his life, following a series of

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

s. He is buried in Lincoln Memorial Park in Portland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lampman, Ben Hur American columnists 1886 births 1954 deaths People from Barron, Wisconsin Writers from Portland, Oregon Poets Laureate of Oregon The Oregonian people 20th-century American poets Journalists from North Dakota People from Jackson County, Oregon 20th-century American essayists