author
1819–1881
Best remembered for the line “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world,” this 19th-century American poet wrote with warmth, patriotism, and a strong feeling for home and family. Trained as a lawyer, he built a literary reputation in New York while keeping one foot in public life and the other in verse.
Born in Kentucky in 1819, William Ross Wallace was an American poet of Scottish descent who later made his career in New York. Sources agree that he studied law when he was young and practiced as a lawyer, but poetry brought him his widest recognition.
He is most closely associated with "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Is the Hand That Rules the World," the famous poem that made his name endure long after much of his other work faded from popular memory. Contemporary and historical references also connect him with the literary world around Edgar Allan Poe, showing that he moved in serious 19th-century writing circles.
Wallace published poetry through the mid-1800s, including Meditations in America, and Other Poems, and remained in New York until his death on May 5, 1881. Today he is remembered less for a large body of widely read work than for one striking phrase that entered everyday language and gave his poetry a lasting place in American culture.