American Decades
Three Literary Suicides
Vachel Lindsay.
Vachel Lindsay was fifty-two years old in 1931 when depression overtook him. He had been a practicing populist poet for some thirty years. He published his own work, distributed it freely, and delighted in reading his works publicly. Yet after he married in 1925 and had two children, the schedule of readings he had to maintain to support his family weakened his health and threatened his already fragile mental state. Late in November 1931 Lindsay traveled from his home in Springfield, Illinois, on a lecture tour that included stops in Cleveland and Washington. Neither session went well. He offended his audience, and people walked out. Lindsay complained to his friend Sara Teasdale that audiences only wanted to hear his old poems and did not care for his new work. When he returned to Springfield, he was tired, embarrassed, and sick. He brought seventy-six dollars home from his tour and faced four thousand dollars in...
[The entire page is 868 words long]
1930's The Arts
