William Vaughn Moody was a United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 dramatist and poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

. Author of The Great Divide, first presented under the title of The Sabine Woman at the Garrick Theatre in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 on April 12, 1906. Moody's poetic dramas included The Masque of Judgment (1900), The Fire Bringer (1904), and The Death of Eve (left undone at his death).

Biography

Born at Spencer, Indiana

Spencer, Indiana

Spencer is a town in Washington Township, Owen County, Indiana, United States. The population was 2,217 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Owen County.Spencer is part of the Bloomington, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...

, his parents died while he was a boy, and he had to work to help support himself while he completed his education. After attending New Albany High School

New Albany High School (Indiana)

Founded in 1853, New Albany High School is one of the oldest public high schools west of the Alleghenies and the first in Indiana. New Albany High School has the first rastafarian-run FM radio station to be licensed by the Federal Communications Commission and has had their own cable TV channel ...

 he went on to Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, where he was awarded the George B. Sohier Prize

George B. Sohier Prize

The George B. Sohier Prize, established by Bostonian businessman Waldo Higginson in 1890, is a $250 annual award for the best thesis of approximately 10,000 words or text submitted by a student of English or Modern Literature at Harvard University or Radcliffe College. Resident graduate students...

 for literature and earned an A.B.

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 in 1893 and an A.M.

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 in 1894.

He taught English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 at Harvard

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 and Radcliffe

Radcliffe College

Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. It was also one of the Seven Sisters colleges. Radcliffe College conferred joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas beginning in 1963 and a formal merger agreement with...

 until 1895, when he went to Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 where he was an instructor at the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

, and from 1901 to 1907 assistant professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 of English and rhetoric

Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...

. He received the degree of Litt.D.

Doctor of Letters

Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...

 from Yale

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 in 1908, and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

The American Academy of Arts and Letters

The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 250-member honor society; its goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Located in Washington Heights, a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan in New York, it shares Audubon Terrace, its Beaux Arts campus on...

.

Moody died from brain cancer at Colorado Springs at the age of 41.

Works

• The Masque of Judgment (1900)
• Poems (1901)
• The Fire-Bringer (1904, intended as the first member of a trilogy on the Promethean
  Prometheus
  In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan, the son of Iapetus and Themis, and brother to Atlas, Epimetheus and Menoetius. He was a champion of mankind, known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals...
  
   theme, of which The Masque of Judgment, already published, was the second member)
• The Great Divide (1907), prose drama, especially successful on the stage
• The Faith Healer (1909), prose drama, very successful on the stage
• A First View of English and American Literature (compiler with Robert M. Lovett; 1902)
• The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton
  John Milton
  John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
  
  (editor; 1899, Cambridge)
• The Poems of Trumbull Stickney
  Trumbull Stickney
  Joseph Trumbull Stickney was an American classical scholar and poet. His style has been characterised as fin de siècle and he is known for his sonnets in particular....
  
  (editor with George Cabot Lodge
  George Cabot Lodge
  George Cabot "Bay" Lodge , was an American poet of the late 19th and early-20th century.-Early life:Lodge was born in in Boston. His father was Henry Cabot Lodge, a politician. His mother was Anna Cabot Mills Davis Lodge...
  
   and John Ellerton Lodge; 1905)

His complete works, including The Death of Eve, a fragment of the third member of the proposed trilogy mentioned above, were edited with an introduction by John M. Manly (1912).

External links

• Biography at poemhunter.com
• Biography at nndb.com
• TheatreHistory.com profile