author
David Park Barnitz
1878–1901
Best known for the haunting 1901 collection The Book of Jade, this American poet packed a strikingly dark imagination into a life that lasted only twenty-three years. His work is often remembered for its decadent mood, intense imagery, and sense of doom.
1 Audiobook
The book of jade
by David Park Barnitz
About the author
Born on June 24, 1878, in Wheeling, West Virginia, David Park Barnitz was an American poet remembered above all for The Book of Jade, the only book published in his lifetime. The collection appeared anonymously in 1901 and later gained a reputation as a small but notable work of decadent poetry.
Sources available here also describe him as a scholar with strong interests in Asian and Sanskrit literature, which helps explain the exotic atmosphere and wide-ranging references in his writing. Even with his very short career, readers and later admirers have continued to notice the book's unusual mix of beauty, decay, and pessimism.
Barnitz died on October 10, 1901, at just twenty-three years old. That early death, together with the anonymity of his book's first publication, has helped give his life and work a lasting air of mystery.