Edwin Markham

Born in Oregon in 1852 and raised in California, Edwin Markham became a poet, teacher, and lecturer whose writing often centered on ordinary people and the moral questions of his time. He is most closely associated with "The Man with the Hoe," a poem inspired by Jean-François Millet's painting that brought him national attention.

Markham's poems often joined lyric feeling with social criticism. He wrote about workers, inequality, and compassion in a style meant to reach a broad audience, which helped make him one of the better-known public poets of his era.

He continued publishing and speaking for decades, and he died in 1940. Today he is remembered as a literary voice of conscience whose best work tried to connect poetry with reform and fellow feeling.