Ernest Thayer
Ernest Lawrence Thayer (born August 14, 1863 in Lawrence , Massachusetts , † August 21, 1940 in Santa Barbara , California ) was an American poet who wrote an ode to baseball with his poem Casey at the Bat .
Life
The son of the wealthy wool magnate Edward Davis Thayer began after attending high school in Worcester in 1881 to study philosophy at Harvard University at the chair of Professor William James and graduated in 1885 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA Philosophy). During his studies he was editor of The Harvard Lampoon between 1884 and 1885 .
In 1886 he became a columnist at the daily newspaper San Francisco Examiner published by his school friend William Randolph Hearst , for which he wrote a weekly column between 1886 and 1888 . The Examiner published Casey at the Bat , Thayer's ode to baseball, for the first time on June 3, 1888 under his pseudonym "Phin". Although it was republished in the New York Sun a few weeks later , the poem gained its popularity in particular through the several thousand appearances of comedian and actor DeWolf Hopper .
Due to the wealth of his family, Thayer only worked sporadically in the family businesses or as a columnist such as from 1896 to 1897 for the New York Evening Journal . The few other poems he wrote were usually light, funny, and memorable, and were published by him in the 1900 illustrated book Casey on the Bat . Towards the end of his life he returned to philosophy and wrote a few philosophical articles, but was frustrated that he was known for a poem he wrote at the age of 24.
Speculations and theories about the true identity of Casey have existed for many decades, with Thayer himself repeatedly making it clear that the poem does not refer to a specific baseball game or player. He rarely recited the poem himself and had to read it aloud because he could not recite it by heart .
Casey on the Bat was also the basis for the opera The Mighty Casey (1953) by William Schuman . In addition, the future actress and racing driver Kasey Rogers was nicknamed "Casey" during school days because of her good performance in baseball.
Web links
- Ernest Thayer in the nndb (English)
Background literature
- Martin Gardner : The Annotated Casey at the Bat , New York City (CN Potter), 1967.
- Jim Moore / Natalie Vermilyea: Ernest Thayer's "Casey at the Bat": Background and Characters of Baseball's Most Famous Poem , Jefferson (McFarland & Co.), 1994.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Thayer, Ernest |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Thayer, Ernest Lawrence (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American poet and columnist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 14, 1863 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lawrence , Massachusetts |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 21, 1940 |
| Place of death | Santa Barbara , California |