Vachel Lindsay Summary

Biography EssayVachel Lindsay's considerable loss of reputation in American letters is a continuing theme in critical evaluations published during the 1970s and 1980s. Ironically, the theme is illustr... Read more

Vachel Lindsay's considerable loss of reputation in American letters is a continuing theme in critical evaluations published during the 1970s and 1980s. Ironically, the theme is illustrated, in part, ... Read more

In the following essay, Untermeyer, a poet and editor, derides the jingoistic and burlesque qualities of Lindsay's verse. Two impulses dominate The Golden Whales of California (The Macmillan... Read more

In the following essay, Wertheim discusses the social and historical context of Lindsay's major poems. When Vachel Lindsay ended his life by drinking a bottle of Lysol on the evening of Dece... Read more

In the following essay, Munson deems Lindsay's poetry trivial and ineffective. Vachel Lindsay has a program for an American renaissance and he writes poetry. Since his poetry is the direct a... Read more

In the following essay, originally published in 1952, Deutsch categorizes Lindsay as a poet in the Romantic tradition. A native of Springfield, Illinois, Lindsay was insistently aware of his herita... Read more

In the following excerpt, Fairchild examines religious aspects of Lindsay's poetry. Another Chicago School reviver of the spirit—not, in this case, of the art—of Walt Whitman w... Read more

In the following excerpt, Massa, author of Vachel Lindsay: Fieldworker for the American Dream, explores the relationship between Lindsay's artistic awareness and his social conscience. Linds... Read more