In the early years of the twentieth century Edwin Markham was regarded by many as a sort of unofficial poet laureate of America. Given the affection with which he was regarded, it is somewhat ironic that, when the obscure forty-six-year-old California schoolmaster began his public career with the publication of "The Man With the Hoe" in the 15 January 1899 issue of the San Francisco Examiner , he was viewed as a radical. During Markham's lifetime that single poem was republished in more than 10,000 newspapers and magazines in more than forty languages. While detractors sneered at the work's "socialist" theme, admirers praised its humanity. To this day no one can explain precisely why the poem generated such controversy. It is enough to say that it brought to boil the social, political, and economic grievances long held by western farmers against eastern bankers and manufacturers, and that the sensational journalism of William...