Badger Clark

Charles Badger Clark (born January 1, 1883 in Albia , Iowa , † September 26, 1957 in Hot Springs , South Dakota ) was an American poet and writer .

Life

Badger Clark was born in 1883 as the youngest son of the Methodist preacher of the same name, CB Clark. At that time, many people moved west to the former Indian territories that were open for settlement . When Badger was three months old, his family left Iowa and looked for a new home in South Dakota. His father tried to gain a foothold there as a preacher in various places. So the family lived in Plankinton , Mitchell , Huron , Hot Springs, and Deadwood . Badger Clark attended school in Deadwood and moved from there to "Dakota University" (now Dakota Wesleyan University ) in Mitchell, of which his father was one of the founders. It was also his father who expelled him after an argument from the university, so that Badger earned his living as a farm laborer . In 1904 Badger Clark traveled to Cuba to start a new life there. After two years he returned to South Dakota from Cuba and fell ill with tuberculosis . To cure lung disease in Arizona's hot and dry climate , he moved to Tombstone , where he lived as a cowboy . In addition, he began to write poems about his work and experiences on the ranches . His stepmother posted one of the poems to Pacific Monthly magazine in 1906, and shortly thereafter Badger Clark was regularly writing poetry and articles for that magazine. When his father became seriously ill in 1910, Badger ended his cowboy life in Arizona and moved to live with his father in South Dakota. After that he worked mainly as a writer for various magazines such as "Sunset Magazine", "Pacific Monthly", "Arizona Highways", " Collier's " ', "Century Magazine", "The Rotarian" and "Scribner's". He also published his poems and stories about life in the Wild West in books. By the mid-1920s he was known throughout the USA as a cowboy poet with "Sun and Saddle Leather" and "Spike". His poem "A Cowboy's Prayer" (first published in 1906) is famous in the USA to this day. In 1925, Badger Clark received state permission to build a cabin in Custer State Park . This little house in the Black Hills , which is called " Badger Hole ", can still be visited on hiking tours today. Badger Clark worked and lived in the "Badger Hole" for over 30 years under very simple, natural conditions. In 1937 he was honored by Governor Leslie Jensen with the title of State Poet of South Dakota. He also earned his living as a storyteller on numerous tours through the United States. He fell ill at the age of 75 and was hospitalized in Hot Springs, where he died. His grave is in the Evergreen Cemetery in Hot Springs.

The example of the country song “Spanish is the Loving Tongue”, which is based on the poem “A Border Affair” by Badger Clark from 1907, shows the role Badger Clark plays as a cowboy poet. The song was composed by Billy Simon in 1925 and has been interpreted over the decades by well-known artists such as Ian and Sylvia , Bob Dylan , Judy Collins , Marianne Faithfull , Emmylou Harris , and Michael Martin Murphey .

Works

• Grass-Grown Tales (1917)
• Sun and Saddle Leather (1919)
• Spike (1925)
• When Hot Springs Was a Pup (1927)
• God of the Open
• Sky Lines and Wood Smoke (1935)
• The Story of Custer City SD (1941)
• Boot and Bylines (posthumous, 1978)
• Singleton (posthumous, 1978)

literature

• Jessi Y. Sundstrom: Badger Clark, Cowboy Poet with Universal Appeal , Custer, SD, 2004

Web links

• Biography (Badger Clark Memorial Society)
• Poetry selection (Badger Clark Memorial Society)
• Badger Clark's tomb
• Badger Hole (South Dakota for History)