[Nicholas Vachel]. American writer, born at Springfield, IL, on the 10th of November 1879. In 1897 he entered Hiram College, OH, but left after three years to study art in Chicago and New York. For several winters he was a Y.M.C.A. lecturer, and during 1909–10 lectured for the Anti-Saloon League in his native state. Meanwhile he had begun during the summers a series of wanderings on foot which carried him through many states, reciting or singing his own verses like an ancient minstrel, and delivering an occasional lecture, receiving in return food and lodging. In 1920 he visited England, where he gave recitals. Many of his poems have the true ballad ring.
He wrote General William Booth Enters into Heaven, and Other Poems (1913); The Congo, and Other Poems (1914); Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty (1914, prose); The Art of the Moving Picture (1915, prose); A Handy Guide for Beggars (1916, prose); The Chinese Nightingale, and Other Poems (1917); The Golden Book of Springfield (1920, prose) and The Golden Whales of California, and Other Rhymes in the American Language (1920).
