George Sterling (1 December 1869 - 17 November 1926) was an American poet based in California who, during his time, was celebrated as one of the greatest American poets, although he never gained much fame in the rest of the country. Events 800 - Charlemagne judges the accusations against Pope Leo III in the Vatican Year 1869 ( MDCCCLXIX) is a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Events 284 - Diocletian is proclaimed emperor by his soldiers Year 1926 ( MCMXXVI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A poet is a person who writes Poetry. Etymology From the Ancient greek: ποιέω, poieō: "I make or compose" California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean.
Sterling was born in Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York, the eldest of nine children. Sag Harbor is a Village in Suffolk County, New York, United States, shared by the towns of East Hampton and Southampton Long Island is an island located in southeastern New York, USA, its western shores directly across from Manhattan, from which the island stretches New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous His father was Dr. George A. Sterling, a physician who determined to make a priest of one of his sons, and George was selected to attend, for three years, Saint Charles College in Maryland. He was instructed in English by John Bannister Tabb, an unpublished poet. John Bannister Tabb (1845-1909 was an American poet much influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, John Keats, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His mother Mary was a member of the Havens family, prominent in Sag Harbor and the Shelter Island area. Her brother, Frank C. Havens, Sterling's uncle, went to San Francisco in the late 19th century and established himself as a prominent lawyer and real estate developer. Frank Colton Havens was a lawyer in the San Francisco Bay Area from the late 19th to early 20th centuries who also was a major developer of real estate in the East Bay The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city Sterling eventually followed him to the Bay Area in 1890 and worked for eighteen years as a real estate broker. This article focuses on US practice for other definitions and practices in other countries see the more general Real Estate or Real property articles
A poet who called his works "pomes", Sterling became a significant figure in Bohemian literary circles in northern California in the first quarter of the 20th century, and in the development of the artists' colony in Carmel, he was mentored by a much older Ambrose Bierce, and became close friends with Jack London, and Clark Ashton Smith, and later mentor to Robinson Jeffers. The term bohemian, of French origin was first used in the English language in the nineteenth century to describe the untraditional lifestyles of marginalized and impoverished Artists Carmel-by-the-Sea, usually called simply Carmel, is a small town endowed with a rich artistic history situated on the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24 1842 &ndash 1914? was an American Editorialist Journalist, short-story writer and Satirist. Jack London (January 12 1876 &ndash November 22 1916 was an American author who wrote The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Clark Ashton Smith ( January 13, 1893 - August 14, 1961) was a Poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy John Robinson Jeffers ( January 10 1887 &ndash January 20 1962) was an American Poet, known for his work about the central His association with Charles Rollo Peters may have led to his move to Carmel. The hamlet had been discovered by Charles Warren Stoddard and others, but Sterling made the place world famous. Charles Warren Stoddard ( 7 August 1843, Rochester, New York – 23 April 1909, Monterey, California His aunt Missus Havens purchased a home for him in Carmel Pines where he lived for six years.
Kevin Starr (1973) wrote:
- "The uncrowned King of Bohemia (so his friends called him), Sterling had been at the center of every artistic circle in the Bay Area. Kevin Starr (born 3 September 1940 in San Francisco) is an American Historian, best-known for his multi-volume series on the history Celebrated as the embodiment of the local artistic scene, though forgotten today, Sterling had in his lifetime been linked with the immortals, his name carved on the walls of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition next to the great poets of the past. The Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE was a World's fair held in San Francisco California between February 20 and December 4 in "
Joseph Noel (1940) says that Sterling's poem, A Wine of Wizardry,[1] has "been classed by many authorities as the greatest poem ever written by an American author. "
According to Noel, Sterling sent the final draft of A Wine of Wizardry to the normally acerbic and critical Ambrose Bierce. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24 1842 &ndash 1914? was an American Editorialist Journalist, short-story writer and Satirist. Bierce said "If I could find a flaw in it, I should quickly call your attention to it. . . It takes the breath away. "
Bierce, who acclaimed Sterling's first poem, The Testimony of the Sun, in his "Prattle" column in William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Examiner, arranged for the publication of A Wine of Wizardry in the September 1907 number of Cosmopolitan, which afforded Sterling some national notice. For other people named William Randolph Hearst see William Randolph Hearst (disambiguation William Randolph Hearst I (April 29 1863 &ndash The San Francisco Examiner is a US daily Newspaper. It has been published continuously in San Francisco, California, since Year 1907 ( MCMVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Cosmopolitan is the best-selling young women's magazine in the world In an introduction to the poem, Bierce wrote "Whatever length of days may be according to this magazine, it is not likely to do anything more notable in literature than it accomplished in this issue by the publication of Mr. George Sterling's poem, 'A Wine of Wizardry. '" Bierce wrote to Sterling, "I hardly know how to speak of it. No poem in English of equal length has so bewildering a wealth of imagination. Not Spencer himself has flung such a profusion of jewels into so small a casket".
Sterling fell into drinking and his wife departed. Noel, a personal acquaintance, says that when he began the poem, Sterling "was persuaded that there was another world than that we know. He repeated this to me so frequently that it became a trifle tiresome. Of the means he employed to get a glimpse of that other world, I am not so sure. " He observes that "many before Sterling had used narcotics to this end;" that "George, a doctor's son, had always had access to whatever drugs he fancied;" says that Sterling's wife said "that George had purloined a great quantity of opium from his brother Wickham," and speaks of "internal evidence in the poem" in which "Sterling writes his Fancy awakened with a 'brow caressed by poppybloom. '" Despite all this, Noel makes a point of saying "there is no direct evidence that Sterling used narcotics. "
Sterling also wrote for children, The Saga of the Pony Express.
Despite such famous mentors as Bierce and Ina Coolbrith, and his long association with London, Sterling himself never became well known outside California. Ina Coolbrith (born Josephine Donna Smith ( March 10, 1841 - February 29, 1928) was a Poet, writer librarian and a prominent and
Sterling's poetry is both visionary and mystical, but he also wrote ribald quatrains that were often unprintable and left unpublished. His style reflects the Romantic charm of such poets as Shelley, Keats and Poe, and he provided guidance and encouragement to the similarly-inclined Clark Ashton Smith at the beginning of Smith's own career. Percy Bysshe Shelley (August 4 1792 – July 8 1822 ˈpɝːsɪ ˈbɪʃ ˈʃɛlɪ was one of the major English Romantic poets and is widely considered to be among Edgar Allan Poe (January 19 1809 – October 7 1849 was an American poet, short-story Writer, editor and Literary critic,
In November of 1926, Sterling committed suicide by swallowing cyanide at his residence at the San Francisco Bohemian Club. The Bohemian Club is a prominent private club in San Francisco, California, USA. Kevin Starr wrote that "When George Sterling's corpse was discovered in his room at the Bohemian Club. . . the golden age of San Francisco's bohemia had definitely come to a miserable end. "
Sterling's most famous line was delivered to the city of San Francisco, "the cool grey city of love!". [2]
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Trivia
- Sterling Road in Berkeley is named for George Sterling. Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in Northern California, in the United States.
- A stone bench was dedicated to Sterling on June 25th, 1926 at the crest of Hyde Street on Russian Hill. Russian Hill is an affluent, largely residential neighborhood of San Francisco California, in the United States.
References
- Benediktsson, Thomas E. (1980). Year 1980 ( MCMLXXX) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar) George Sterling. Boston: Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0-8057-7313-4.
- Noel, Joseph (1940). Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Footloose in Arcadia. New York: Carrick and Evans.
- Starr, Kevin (1973). Year 1973 ( MCMLXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. Americans and the California Dream 1850-1915. Oxford University Press. 1986 reprint: ISBN 0-19-504233-6
- Sterling, George (1911). Year 1911 ( MCMXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year The House of Orchids and Other Poems. San Francisco: A. M. Robertson.
- Sterling, George (Joshi, S.T., ed. Sunand Tryambak Joshi (b 22 June 1958 in Pune, India) is an Indian American Literary Critic, and a leading ) (2003). Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. The Thirst of Satan: Poems of Fantasy and Terror. New York: Hippocampus Press. ISBN 0-9721644-6-4
Notes
- ^ O'Day, Edward F. (December 1927). "1869-1926". Overland Monthly LXXXV (12): 357-359.
External links
- George-Sterling.org Collected works, image gallery, bibliography and critical articles.
- A George Sterling Page: A brief biography of Sterling.
- George Sterling, Poet: A page by the poet's grand niece.
- George Sterling (1869-1926): A collection of Sterling's poems; notes on memorial glade in San Francisco.
- George Sterling: Poet and Friend by Clark Ashton Smith
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