author
Ernest McGaffey
b. 1861
A Chicago lawyer who wrote with a naturalist’s eye and a poet’s ear, this late-19th- and early-20th-century author moved easily between courtrooms, newspapers, and the open air. His work ranges from verse to outdoor writing, with a clear affection for woods, marshes, birds, and sporting life.
1 Audiobook
Cosmos
by Ernest McGaffey
About the author
Born in 1861, Ernest McGaffey was an American lawyer and author associated with Chicago literary and legal circles. Contemporary reference material describes him as a lawyer practicing in Chicago, and surviving bibliographic records show that he published both poetry and prose over several decades.
McGaffey wrote books including Poems of Gun and Rod (1892), Poems (1898), and Outdoors; a Book of the Woods, Fields and Marshlands (1907). That later book was republished from newspaper and magazine pieces and reflects the part of his writing most likely to appeal to modern listeners: vivid, observant work shaped by time spent outdoors and a strong interest in nature and field sports.
Archival material also shows that Theodore Roosevelt knew of McGaffey’s nature writing and took enough interest in it to forward his book to Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1907. McGaffey died in 1941, leaving behind a body of work that blends poetry, journalism, and the older American tradition of writing about the outdoors.