The record., 1914-12-10
MADISON CAWEIN
Kestucky's Poet, Is Dead.

wolius greatest modern poets, uleu
at Ia:a5 O'Clock Tuesday at his
, home, No. 6 St. James Apartments,
Louisville. Mr.. Cawein was strick-
en- with an attack of vertigo while
in his bathroom preparing to shave,
and in falling struck his head
against the bathtub, bringing about
injuries from which he died.
!. Madison Cawein was born in
Louisville March as, 1865. He
was educated in the public schools
of that city, and began his literary
work before his graduation. After
leaving school he accepted a posi-
tion as an accountant, but continu-
ed his literary labors. In 1887 he
published his first book, "Blooms Of
the Berry," which attracted the at
tention of William Dean Howells,
who gave it kindly review in
Harper's Magazine. From. that
time on Mr. Cawein was busy
writer, having to his credit some
thirty-hve volumes at the time of
his death. First copies of his last
book, ~rhe Poet and Nature and
the Morning Road were delivered
to his home on the very morning be
was stricken with the illness which
brought about his death.
Mr.. Cawein was a member of the
Louisville Literary Club, the Nation
al Institute of Arts and Letters, the
Poetry Society of America, the
Cliff Dwellers of Chicago, Authors
Club of London, England; Louis
vile Country Club, The Filson
Club, the Pendennis Club and other
we'll known organizations.
Madison Cawein was a true poet.
He was hailed by English critics as
the greatest modern American max
er of song, and by many acclaimed
the worlds greatest nature poet.
Mr.. John Wilson Townsend in his
recently published book, "Kentucky |
in American Letters" says of Mr..
Cawein: uHe is so far removed |
from any Kentucky poet of the
present school that to mention him /
in the same breath with aE.f.h. ]
is to make ones self absurd. Look.
ing backward to the beginning of
our literature and coming carefully
down the slope to this time, but two
poets rise Out of the mists of yester-
day to greet Cavern and challenge
him fox the Iaureatship of Kentucky
makers of song: Theodore O'Hara
with his immortal elegy and Daniel
Henry Holmes with his sheath of
tender lyrics. These three are the
nearest approach to the ineffable
poets-who left the earth with the
passing of Tennyson-yet nurtured
upon Kentucky soil.
That Mr.. Cawein was appreciated
abroad as we'll as at home the follow.
ing declaration from the Poetry Re-
view, of London, England, is proof:
"He appears quite the biggest figure
among American poets: his return
to nature has no tinge of affectation;
it is genuine to the smallest detail.r
Madison Cawein was, first of all,
a Nature poet. and he had the pow
er to take even the common things,
give them dress of song aud make
them throb with living, breathing
beauty. He was a devout follower
of the beautiful in all things: lover
of the great out doors; man who
saw in everything around him the
anmistakable handiwork of God.
Every tree and flower and shrub was
to him a friend. They spoke to
him in language he could under
stand, and he had the rare ability to
transfer this to his written words so
that others were able to see and un
derstand these things which he loved
30 we'll. No painter, toiling over
his canvas, was ever able to put up
On it more color than Madison
Cawein could transfer to his printed
pages. His pen pictures of wood
lands and streams and fields and
flowers stand out before the reader
10 all their natural beauty, lifte 1 in
10 throbbing life by the magic of
his words. FAIRY folk walked
through bis beloved forests and he
caught the far, faint echo of their
'ongs, and the brush of their nimble
feet, weaving the whole into witch
ng song.
First and foremost, Madison Ca
vein was Kentucky's own poet. born
md reared on Kentucky soil, but
he world has placed laurel wreath