Antique 1924 The Man With The Hoe Poem Hand Signed By Edwin Markham

  
An inscribed broadside from'an important voice in American poetry': Markham's most famous work, with an original typescript alteration to one line. The Man with the Hoe. Written after seeing Millet's world-famous painting of a brutalized toiler in the deep abyss of labor. Broadside (14 x 8 ½ in; 356 x 216mm). Drop-head title, 49-line poem in 5 verses of unequal length, the 19. Line with the second half erased and replaced using a typewriter ('More tongued with censure of the world's blind greed' is here replace by'More tongued with [cries against the world's blind greed]), signed and dated'Edwin Markham / 1928' at foot, manuscript presentation inscription at head [see below]. Condition : old folds, two clean tears, upper blank margin a bit thin where the broadside had previously been hinged. An attractive broadside with the introduction, by the poet, of an alternative version of one line and an interesting provenance. The Man with the Hoe is a poem by the American poet Edwin Markham, inspired by Jean-Francois Millet's's painting L'homme à la houe, a painting interpreted as a socialist protest about the peasant's plight. The poem was first presented as a public poetry reading at a New Year's Eve party in 1898.

It was soon published in the San Francisco Examiner in January 1899 after its editor heard it at the same party. The poem was also reprinted in other newspapers across the United States due to a chorus of acclaim. It was used as the opening poem in Markham's 1902 collection The Man with a Hoe and Other Poems.

The poem portrays the labor of much of humanity using the symbolism of a laborer leaning upon his hoe, burdened by his work, but receiving little rest or reward. "The Man with a Hoe" has been called "the battle-cry of the next thousand years".

After its publication, the poem's content, form, and language have captured the feelings and thoughts of people, drawing attention to social issues such as labor exploitation while helping causes such as the revitalization of efforts pursuing labor reform The poem also helped Markham's career. The poet became a much sought-after public speaker and his first book of poetry was immediately published to take advantage of the opportunities that became available after the poem established him as one of the American modern poets. Miss Eleanor Walter Thomas of Cleveland, Ohio, professor emeritus of Western Reserve University in Cleveland and a former resident of South Carolina, died Sunday morning at Cleveland. Miss Thomas was born Sept 11, 1880, in Charlotte, NC, a daughter of the late Col John Peyre Thomas and Mary Caroline Gibbes Thomas.

She was reared in Charleston, where her father was superintendent of The Citadel, and in Columbia, where Col Thomas served in the state legislature. She was educated at the parochial school of the Roman Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd in Columbia.

Miss Thomas received her AB degree in 1900 at the College for Women, Columbia, and later received BS, MA, and Ph. D degrees from Columbia University in New York City. She also studied at the University of South Carolina summer school, Cornell University and Cambridge University in England. Miss Thomas began her teaching career in 1900 at St Mary's School in Raleigh, NC, where she served as a teacher of mathematics and English and as Dean of Students until 1917. She also served as professor of English at the College for Women in Greenville in 1904 and 1905.

Upon leaving St Mary's, Miss Thomas taught at Lake Erie College in Ohio and joined the faculty of Flora Stone Mather College, Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, in 1919. She served as head of the English department and Woods Professor of English at Flora Stone Mather College from 1944 until her retirement in 1949. She was then named professor emeritus and received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the college in 1963. Miss Thomas was the author of "Christina Georgina Rosetti, " published by the Columbia University Press in 1931, and was the author of numerous magazine articles and book reviews.

She was a member of the Southern Association of College Women, American Association of University Professors, Modern Language Association, Association of America, Graduate English Club of Columbia University, and held membership in the Friends of the Public Library and the Women's City Club in Cleveland, Ohio. The Eleanor Walter Thomas Fund of Flora Stone Mather College was established in her honor in 1949. Charleston News and Courier, 14 July 1969.