Robert J. (Robert James) Shores

Born in 1881, Robert J. Shores built a career around words, beginning early as a student editor and young newspaper writer in Great Falls, Montana. Local historical records describe him as active in school and community publishing from his teens, and later work connected him with journalism and editorial writing.

He is best remembered today for books such as New Brooms and Gay Gods and Merry Mortals: Some Excursions in Verse, both now preserved through Project Gutenberg and library archives. Those works show the range that made him distinctive: essays that mix humor with reflection, and verse that playfully reworks classical myths for modern readers.

Shores died in 1934, but his writing still has an easy, companionable charm. Readers coming to him now will find a voice that is clever without being stiff, interested in ordinary life, and always ready to smile at human nature.