Alan Seeger

Born in New York City on June 22, 1888, Alan Seeger spent part of his youth on Staten Island and in Mexico before studying at Harvard, where he moved in literary circles that included other future writers. After college he lived in New York and then Paris, determined to make a life in poetry.

When World War I began, Seeger enlisted in the French Foreign Legion even though the United States had not yet entered the conflict. He served in France and was killed in action on July 4, 1916, at Belloy-en-Santerre during the Battle of the Somme.

Seeger's reputation rests largely on his war poetry, especially I Have a Rendezvous with Death, which became famous for its striking sense of destiny. His work and letters, published around the time of his death, helped secure his place as a lasting American voice of the First World War.