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William Ross Wallace

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William Ross Wallace (1819 – May 5, 1881) was an American poet, with Scottish roots, best known for writing "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Is The Hand That Rules The World".

Early life

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Wallace was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1819.[a] His father, a Presbyterian preacher, died when Wallace was an infant.[1]

Wallace was educated at Indiana University Bloomington and Hanover College, Indiana, and studied law in Lexington, Kentucky.

Career

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In 1841, he moved to New York City, where he practiced law, and at the same time engaged in literary pursuits.[2] "Perdita", a poem, was his first work. Published in the Union Magazine, it attracted favorable criticism and was followed by "Alban" (1848), a poetical romance, and "Meditations in America" (1851). Other poems that attained popularity include "The Sword of Bunker Hill" (1861), a national hymn; "Keep Step with the Music of the Union" (1861); "The Liberty Bell" (1862); and his most famous poem, "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Is The Hand That Rules The World" (1865), a poem praising motherhood.[2][3] He contributed to Godey's Lady's Book, Harper's Magazine, Harper's Weekly, the New York Ledger, and the Louisville Daily Journal.[3] William Cullen Bryant said of his writings: "They are marked by a splendor of imagination and an affluence of diction which show him the born poet."[2] Edgar Allan Poe, a friend of Wallace, referred to him as "one of the very noblest of American poets".[4] Wallace died at his home in New York City on May 5, 1881, a week after suffering a stroke.[5] He was working on a book to be titled Pleasures of the Beautiful at the time of his death.[5]

Personal life

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Wallace married his second wife Ann Polhemus Riker, the daughter of Daniel Riker (1771–1828) and Helen Polhemus (1783–?), in October 1856. They had two daughters and a son.[6]

Books by Wallace

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  • The Battle of Tippecanoe, Triumphs of Science, and Other Poems (1837)
  • Wordsworth: A Poem (1846)
  • Alban the Pirate: A Romaunt of the Metropolis (1848)
  • Meditations in America, and Other Poems (1851)
  • Prattsville, an American Poem (1852)
  • The Loved and the Lost (1856)
  • Progress of the United States: Henry Clay, an Ode "Of Thine Own Country Sing" (1856)
  • Patriotic and Heroic Eloquence: A Book for the Patriot, Statesman and Student (1861)
  • The Liberty Bell (1862)

Notes

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  1. ^ Wallace's obituary in The New York Times lists his place of birth as Paris, Kentucky. Most sources state he was born in Lexington, however.
  1. ^ Coggeshall, William T. (1860). Poets and Poetry of the West. New York: Follett, Foster, and Company. pp. 227–37.
  2. ^ a b c Wilson & Fiske 1891.
  3. ^ a b Johannsen, Albert (1950). House of Beadle & Adams and its Dime and Nickel Novels: The Story of a Vanished Literature. University of Oklahoma Press.
  4. ^ Willis, Nathaniel Parker; James Russell Lowell (1857). The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe. Vol. 3. J. S. Redfield. pp. 240–241.
  5. ^ a b "Death Of Wm. Ross Wallace. Poems That He Wrote, His Illness, And His Friendship With Poe". The New York Times. May 7, 1881.
  6. ^ "Wallace, William Ross (1819-1881)". pfaffs.web.lehigh.edu. Retrieved May 1, 2020.

References

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