Clement Wood

Born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on September 1, 1888, he studied at the University of Alabama and then earned a law degree from Yale in 1911. Although he began in law and public service, he became better known for a long and varied writing career.

He wrote primarily poetry, but he also produced novels, murder mysteries, spy stories, literary criticism, biography, history, and guides for aspiring poets. Among the works most often associated with him are The Glory Road, a collection containing his best-known poem, a critical biography of Amy Lowell, and The Complete Rhyming Dictionary, which helped keep his name familiar to later generations of writers.

He died on October 26, 1950. What makes him interesting today is the sheer range of his output: he was the kind of author who could turn from poems to popular fiction to useful reference books without losing his energy or curiosity.