Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr.

Joseph Seamon Cotter Jr. (September 2, 1895 – February 3, 1919) was an American playwright, writer, and poet from Louisville, Kentucky most remembered for his posthumously published one-act play ''On The Fields of France'' in addition to numerous volumes of poetry.

Early life

Cotter was born and lived the formative years of his life in Louisville, Kentucky, where he attended Central High School until his graduation in 1911. His father, Joseph Seamon Cotter Sr., a noted African-American playwright in his own regard, was the principal when Cotter graduated.

Education

Cotter subsequently attended Fisk University in Nashville, TN, before contracting tuberculosis, a disease that claimed the life of his sister, Florence Olivia, in 1914.Aberjhani, Sandra L. West. ''Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance'', Infobase Publishing, 2003, p. 71.

Career

After falling ill, Cotter returned to Louisville and began work as a journalist for the ''Leader''. Cotter avoided mimicking the style of his father and instead "experimented with free and, in ''Rain Music'', rhythmic styles. His father was instrumental in promoting his son's work after his death in 1919 from tuberculosis. He was said by many to have had the potential to be the greatest poet of his generation. Thurman, Wallace, "Negro Poets and Their Poetry," ''The Bookman'', July 1928.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cotter, Joseph Seamon Jr.
Writers from Louisville, Kentucky
American writers
Harlem Renaissance
1895 births
1919 deaths
20th-century American male writers
20th-century African-American writers
African-American male writers
American people who self-identify as being of Cherokee descent
American people of Scotch-Irish descent