The Poet and His Childhood -- In the University of Nature --
Influence of Great Books Upon the Child's Mind -- The Struggle
for an Education -- Two Teachers Who Aided Him -- His Academic
Education -- Educational Work in California -- His Marriage --
Removes to the East -- His Principal Works. Edwin Markham,
democracy's greatest poet, is the reflector of the mighty
spiritual undercurrent of our age. He represents the new
conscience and the broadening spiritual ideals of our wonderful
age. In the course of a delightful evening spent with the poet,
he gave me some intimate reminiscences of his childhood. "I was
born," he said, "in 1852, in Oregon City, on the picturesque
Willamette. Among my earliest recollections was my mother's
store, often frequented by the Indians, who were among her best
customers; a store that stood almost under the shadow of the
tall bluffs that rise behind the town. I was at that time
between four and five years old, and I had a little playmate,
Maggie Kilburn, who lived in a little yell