Francis Speir

Born in New York City in 1856, Francis Speir Jr. was an American lawyer and writer. He studied at Princeton University and later at Columbia Law School, and he is remembered today mainly for his poetry rather than for a large literary career.

His best-known work appears to be In Colima, and Other Poems, a slim collection that suggests a taste for travel, observation, and reflective verse. Surviving library and archival records point to a writer whose published output was modest, but distinctive enough to remain preserved in historical collections.

Speir’s name also appears in connection with Princeton’s 1877 scientific expedition to Colorado and Wyoming, linking him to a fascinating moment in nineteenth-century academic life. He died in 1925, leaving behind the image of a cultivated man who moved between law, literature, and the intellectual circles of his time.