Omaha daily bee., 1899-12-20
EDWIN MARKHAM, The POET
Author of the Famous Poem, The Man
with the Hoe Visits Omaha,
TALKS ENTERTAINMENT OF HIS SUCCESS
His Rook 6T Poems is Having an
Enormous SaIc-Is ut work on
Another NoIumc-out ON
LccturinE Tour.

Edwin Markham. who woke up and found
himself famous after he had written the
poem, THE Man with the Hoe" was in
Omaha yesterday for few hours. a portion
of his time was spent in a visit to The Bee
Office Mr.. Markham has the appearance OF
a man about 60 years of age. His hair is
gray; he has an attractive, refined, intellec-
/ tua looking face; he does not look at all
like the pictures OF him that have been
printed in the newspapers they are a
burlesque
MIR. Markham is now out on a lecturins
tour. He lectured Monday evening in
Beatrice and last evening he filled an engage
ment at Sioux City. He was for a quarter
Of a century engaged in higher educational
work in California His home was in oak
land; he now resides in Brooklyn, n. Y
Mr.. Markham is an entertaining conversa
zionist. In talking of himself and his
work he is rather modest-a charming char
actoristc of the man. MY publishers write
me that my book The Man with the Hoe,
and other Poems is meeting with greater
success than any other volume of poems ever
published in America" said Mr. Markham.
1.-TWO thousand copies were sold last month.
1t is now being printed in editions Of 5000
at time. l am under contract to write an
other book for publication next spring AMI
am now at work on 1t whenever ! have any
spare time.
Immediately after my poem attracted the
attention of the public-which was a result
l had hardly expected-I at once came ino
great demand among the eastern editors and
publishers. | saw that my time had come to
give up my old vocation and devote myself
to literature and thus fulfill the dream of
my life. / accordingly went east and ac
cepted a wonderfully advantageous offer.
in the course of my lecturing tour | find
people deeply interested in the social prob
lem of how to bring about peace between
capital and labor. The title of my lecture
is The Poem and the Problem In nearly
every place where l lecture the audiences
are large and composed mainly of the think
ing class of people.
1T is somewhat amusing to note the fact
that whenever one writes anything that
causes discussion or otherwise attracts at
tention various persons see some philosophy
in it that the author never contemplated.
1t was so in my case. Soon after the pub
lication of my poem I received letters from
Christian Scientists saying that the ideas
enuncated in The Man with the Hoe were
in accord with the principles of their re-
ligious belief. | was assured by others that
The Man with the Hoe was really the creed
of the Christians. The Theosophists claimed
that the poem was in harmony with their
philosophy And so it has gone all along the
line.
II shall by no means devote all my time
to lecturing, but while l am in demand
shall take advantage of the golden oppor-
tunity that has fallen to my lot. Eventually
the greater portion of my time will be given
to literature, in which l hope to maintain
the reputation that I have somewhat sud
denly acquired, although have been writ
ing more or less for magazines and news
papers nearly all my life. Most of my writ
ing has been along philosophical lines. In
addition to being under contract with
Doubleday G. Mcclure, the publishers, am
now regular contributor to the Phiadel-
phla Saturday Evening Post, high-class
literary publication"