John Myers O'Hara (1870–1944) was an American poet. Born at

Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids () is the second-largest city in Iowa, United States and is the county seat of Linn County, Iowa, Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River (Iowa River), Cedar River, north of Iowa City, Iowa, Iowa City and north ...

Biography of John Myers O'Hara
from ''The Second Book of Modern Verse'' (1919), ed. Jessie Belle Rittenhouse. Retrieved May 6, 2014. into a wealthy family from Chicago,Inventory of the John Myers O'Hara Papers, 1908–1942
, The

Newberry Library The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities and located on Washington Square in Chicago, Illinois. It has been free and open to the public since 1887. Its collections encompass a variety of topics rela ...

, Chicago. Retrieved May 6, 2014. he studied at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, Wil ...

. He was admitted to the bar and practiced law in Chicago for twelve years. In his thirties he moved permanently to New York, where he worked as a

broker A broker is a person or firm who arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller for a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal. Neither role should be confu ...

on Wall Street and also wrote poetry. In the

1929 stock market crash The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

, O'Hara and his whole family lost their fortunes, but he continued to work in a

brokerage house A broker is a person or firm who arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller for a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal. Neither role should be confu ...

and write and publish poetry. Besides his own poems, O'Hara also produced rather creative translations of Greek, Roman and French authors, such as the critically successful ''Poems of

Sappho Sappho (; el, Σαπφώ ''Sapphō'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her Greek lyric, lyric poetry, written to be sung while ...

'' (1907). He also produced poetical works like ''Xochicuicatl ... : Flowersongs of Anahuac'' (1940) and ''Poems of Ming Wu'' (1941), which, while purporting to be translations from foreign literature, were actually completely original works. His own poetry collections, such as ''Songs of the Open'' (1909), ''Pagan Sonnets'' (1913), ''Manhattan'' (1915), ''Threnodies'' (1918) and ''Embers'' (1921), received favorable notice. O'Hara was active in the poetical circles of his day and carried on an extensive correspondence with several women writers, most notably

Sara Teasdale Sara Teasdale (August 8, 1884January 29, 1933) was an American lyric poet. She was born Sarah Trevor Teasdale in St. Louis, Missouri, and used the name Sara Teasdale Filsinger after her marriage in 1914. In 1918 she won a Pulitzer Prize for her ...

Corinne Roosevelt Robinson Corinne Roosevelt Robinson (September 27, 1861 – February 17, 1933) was an American poet, writer and lecturer. She was also the younger sister of former President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt and an aunt of future First Lady of the ...

, Jessie Belle Rittenhouse,

Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff ( Shoemaker, later Carr) (July 10, 1888 – December 15, 1967) was an American poet. Early life Blanche was born in Larchmont, New York on July 10, 1888 but spent much of her life in New York City. She was the only dau ...

and

Leonora Speyer Leonora Speyer, Lady Speyer (née von Stosch; 7 November 1872 – 10 February 1956), was an American poet and violinist. Life She was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Count Ferdinand von Stosch of Mantze in Silesia, who fought for th ...

. The first stanza of his poem ''Atavism'' (1902)"Atavism", '' The Bookman'', November 1902. Retrieved April 13, 2014. is used as the epigraph to

Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

's ''

The Call of the Wild ''The Call of the Wild'' is a short adventure novel by Jack London, published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand. The central character of the novel is a dog named Bu ...

'':

References

Bibliography *

External links

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John Myers O'Hara Papers
a
Newberry LibraryJohn Myers O'Hara Letters to John Hervey
a
Newberry Library
1870 births 1944 deaths 20th-century American poets Northwestern University alumni Writers from Cedar Rapids, Iowa 20th-century American translators American male poets 20th-century American male writers {{US-poet-1870s-stub