William Vaughn Moody
William Vaughn Moody (1869-1910) was an influential American poet and playwright, recognized for his significant contributions to literature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in New Albany, Indiana, he excelled academically, graduating as valedictorian from high school and later earning his degrees from Harvard University, where he was also distinguished as class poet. Moody's literary career flourished with the publication of his poems in prominent magazines, and he gained acclaim for his dramatic works, such as "The Great Divide," which explores the contrasting lives and values of a marriage between a puritanical woman and an uninhibited man.
Despite his success, Moody faced challenges, including a dislike for teaching-related administrative tasks, leading him to eventually resign from his faculty position. He published a collection of his poetry and co-authored a textbook, which provided him with financial stability to focus on his writing. Moody's health declined after a bout of typhoid fever, and he ultimately succumbed to a brain tumor in 1910. Posthumously recognized for his artistry, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters from Yale University and left behind a legacy that includes a lasting presence in literary anthologies.
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William Vaughn Moody
- Born: July 8, 1869
- Birthplace: Spencer, Indiana
- Died: October 17, 1910
- Place of death: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Biography
William Vaughn Moody was born in 1869 to Francis Burdette Moody, a steamboat captain and businessman, and Henrietta Stoy Moody. One of seven children, he attended public schools in New Albany, Indiana. His mother died in 1884, and the following year, he graduated as valediction of his high school class. His father died in 1886, the year Moody taught at a rural school. He enrolled at Riverview Academy in New York in 1887, and excelled in his studies.
Moody attended Harvard on a scholarship, and earned a B.A in 1893 and an M.A in 1894. He edited the Harvard Monthly, published poems in college literary magazines, and moved in intellectual circles that included classmates such as George Santayana. He supported himself with editing and tutoring jobs, and spent all of 1892 in Europe as a tutor for the son of a prosperous American family. He graduated second in his Harvard class and was named class poet. His classmates remember him as reserved yet intellectually forthcoming. He married Harriet Brainard in 1909.
Moody taught English at Harvard and Radcliffe, and joined the faculty of the University of Chicago in 1895. He hated the administrative work associated with teaching, and resented the time it took from his writing pursuits. By 1897, he taught only half the year, and in 1899, he moved to Boston and, later, New York. He did not lecture at all in 1900. He edited classics by such authors as Coleridge and Milton, and published his own poems in Scribner’s and the Atlantic Monthly. He coauthored the textbook A History of English Literature, and it was published in 1902. Its sales provided him with the financial security to abandon teaching. He officially resigned his post in 1907.
In 1901, Moody published twenty-three of his works composed over the previous decade as Poems. Critics reviewed it favorably. He also wrote several dramas, including The Masque of Judgment (pb. 1900), The Fire-Bringer (pb. 1904), and his most popular play, The Great Divide (pb. 1906). Originally staged in Chicago as A Sabine Woman, The Great Divide enjoyed a successful two-year run in New York and also did well in London. The Great Divide examines the marriage of a puritanical East Coast woman and an uninhibited man from the West. A subsequent play, The Faith Healer (1910), flopped. At the time of his death, Moody had completed one act of The Death of Eve, which some critics uphold as his best work. Moody suffered a bout of typhoid fever in 1908. He traveled to Colorado Springs, Colorado, with his wife in an attempt to regain his health, but died of a brain tumor in 1910.
Yale University awarded Moody an honorary Doctor of Letters degree in 1908, and the same year, he was admitted to the National Academy of Arts and Letters. Moody’s contemporaries recognized him as a leading American poet, and his poems remain his greatest contribution. Several of his early compositions appear with frequency in literary anthologies.