R. F. (Robert Fuller) Murray

Born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, on December 26, 1863, he spent most of his life in Britain after his father took him there as a child. He was educated in Ilminster and Crewkerne, then went on to the University of St Andrews, a place that shaped both his friendships and much of his writing.

After university he worked for a time as an assistant to the educator John M. D. Meiklejohn and later did journalism in Edinburgh. He published poems in magazines and, in 1891, brought out The Scarlet Gown, the book most closely linked with his years at St Andrews.

His health failed early, and he died in 1894 after suffering from consumption, probably tuberculosis. A second collection, Robert F. Murray: His Poems with a Memoir, was published that same year with a memoir by Andrew Lang, who admired his humor, gentleness, and promise as a poet.