Edgar Albert Guest (20 August 1881 – 5 August 1959) was a British-born American
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 wri ...
who became known as the People's Poet. His poems often had an inspirational and optimistic view of everyday life.
Early life
Guest was born in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
in 1881. In 1891, his family moved from England to Detroit, Michigan, where Guest lived until he died.
Career
After he began at the ''
Detroit Free Press
The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primari ...
'' as a copy boy and then a reporter, his first poem appeared on 11 December 1898. He became a
naturalized citizen
Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...
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
Light poetry or light verse is poetry that attempts to be humorous. Light poems are usually brief, can be on a frivolous or serious subject, and often feature word play including puns, adventurous rhyme, and heavy alliteration. Typically, light ...
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 penned some 11,000 poems which were syndicated in some 300 newspapers and collected in more than 20 books, including ''A Heap o' Livin (1916) and ''Just Folks'' (1923–1957). Guest was made
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 Michigan, the only poet to have been awarded the title.
His popularity led to a weekly Detroit radio show which he hosted from 1931 until 1942, followed by a 1951
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
television series, ''A Guest in Your House''.
He also had a thrice-weekly
transcribed radio program that began January 15, 1941, and was sponsored by
Land O'Lakes
Land O'Lakes, Inc. is an American member-owned agricultural cooperative based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb of Arden Hills, Minnesota, United States, focusing on the dairy industry. The cooperative has 1,959 direct producer-members, 751 ...
Creameries. The program featured singer
Eddy Howard
Edward Evan Duncan Howard (September 12, 1914 – May 23, 1963) was an American vocalist and bandleader who was popular during the 1940s and 1950s.
Early years
Eddy Howard was born in Woodland, California, and after attending San Jose State Coll ...
.
Guest was made a
Freemason in Detroit, where he was a lifetime member of Ashlar Lodge No. 91. In honor of Guest's devotion to the Craft, community, and humanity in general, the
Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Michigan established the Edgar A. Guest Award for lodges to present to non-Masons within the community who have demonstrated distinguished service to the community and their fellow man.
Guest was also a member o
The Tin Whistles
When Guest died in 1959, he was buried in Detroit's
Woodlawn Cemetery.
His grandniece
Judith Guest is a novelist best known for ''
Ordinary People
''Ordinary People'' is a 1980 American drama film directed by Robert Redford in his directorial debut. The screenplay by Alvin Sargent is based on the 1976 novel of the same name by Judith Guest. The film follows the disintegration of an upp ...
'' (1976).
Reputation
Guest's work still occasionally appears in periodicals such as ''
Reader's Digest
''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wif ...
'', and some favorites, such as "Myself" and "Thanksgiving," are still studied today. However, in one of the most quoted appraisals of his work,
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles.
From a conflicted and unhap ...
reputedly said: "I'd rather flunk my
Wassermann test
The Wassermann test or Wassermann reaction (WR) is an antibody test for syphilis, named after the bacteriologist August Paul von Wassermann, based on complement fixation. It was the first blood test for syphilis and the first in the nontrepone ...
than read a poem by Edgar Guest."
In popular culture
A favorite poet of
Edith Bunker
Edith Bunker is a fictional character on the 1970s sitcom ''All in the Family'' (and occasionally '' Archie Bunker's Place''), played by Jean Stapleton. She is the wife of Archie Bunker, mother of Gloria Stivic, mother-in-law of Michael "Meathe ...
from the TV show ''
All In The Family
''All in the Family'' is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS for nine seasons, from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. Afterwards, it was continued with the spin-off series ''Archie Bunker's Place'', which picked up where ''All in ...
''. She quotes him in a few episodes including 'Prisoner In The House', first broadcast on 4 January 1975.
Edgar Guest is depicted on the badge worn by the crew of
Count Olaf
The children's novel series ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' and its film and television adaptations features a large cast of characters created by Daniel Handler under the pen name of Lemony Snicket. The original series follows the turbulent ...
's submarine ''Carmelita'' in ''
The Grim Grotto
''The Grim Grotto'' is the eleventh novel in the children's book series ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' by Lemony Snicket. The book was released on Tuesday, September 21, 2004.
This novel tells the subsequent story of the Baudelaire orphans ...
'', the eleventh book in
Lemony Snicket's ''
Series of Unfortunate Events
''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' is a series of thirteen children's novels written by American author Daniel Handler under the pen name Lemony Snicket. The books follow the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire. After thei ...
''. In the book Guest is mocked as a "writer of limited skill, who wrote awkward, tedious poetry on hopelessly sentimental topics" (''The Grim Grotto'' (2004) p. 281).
In the novel ''
I Am Legend'', the main character Robert Neville sardonically comments on his own internal monologue: "The last man in the world is Edgar Guest".
Guest's poem "It Couldn't Be Done" was recited by
Idris Elba
Idrissa Akuna Elba (; born 6 September 1972) is an English actor. on the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's Sports Personality of the Year Award on 16 December 2012 whilst celebrating Team GB and Paralympics GB winning the team award for 2012.
Guest's poem "The Epicure" was reproduced in
on his single "Skeegee".
*''Home Rhymes, from'' Breakfast Table Chat (1909)
*''The Panama Canal'' (1915)
*''A Heap o' Livin (1916)
*''Just Glad Things'' (1916)
*''Just Folks'' (1917)
*''Over Here'' (1918)
*''Poems of Patriotism'' (1918)
*''The Path to Home(1919)
*''A Dozen New Poems'' (1920)
*''Sunny Songs'' (1920)
*''Keep Going'' (''Don't Quit'') (1921)
*''When Day Is Done'' (1921)
*''Don't Quit'' (3 March 1921)
*''All That Matters'' (1922)
*''Making The House A Home'' (1922)
*''The Passing Throng'' (1923)
*''Rhymes of Childhood'' (1924)
*''Mother'' (1925)
*''The Light of Faith'' (1926)
*''The Secret of The Ages'' (1926)
*''You'' (1927)
*''Harbor Lights of Home'' (1928)
*''You Can't Live Your Own Life'' (1929)
*''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)
*''Between You and Me: My Philosophy of Life'' (1938)
*''Today and Tomorrow'' (1942)
*''Living the Years'' (1949)
*''Sermons We See''
*Courage
*The Proof of Worth
*''See It Through''
*''Life's Slacker''
*''Team Work''
*''Can't''
*''At Christmas''
*''Things Work Out''
*''Have you Earned your Tomorrow''
*''Girl I Hope You Understand''
I Rather See A Sermon