Walt Mason Explained

Birth Name:Walter S. Mason
Birth Date:4 May 1862
Birth Place:Columbus, Canada West
Death Place:La Jolla, California, U.S.
Occupation:Journalist, Writer, Poet
Years Active:1881-1939
Known For:Rippling Rhymes
Notable Works:Uncle Walt, Horse Sense, Terse Verse
Children:2

Walt Mason (May 4, 1862 – June 22, 1939)[1] was a Canadian-born American journalist and writer, whose daily column was syndicated by George Matthew Adams in over 200 US and Canadian newspapers during the early part of the 20th Century.[2]

He was called "the poet laureate of common sense",[3] and the "Homer of modern America", but referred to himself as "the Fat One".[4] His columns were collected into eight books of "prose poems" between 1910 and 1919, for which admirers such as Theodore Dreiser, James Whitcomb Riley, William Dean Howells, Arthur Conan Doyle, George Ade, and Mary Roberts Rinehart wrote laudatory testimonials.[5]

Early years

He was born in Columbus, Canada West, the sixth of seven sons[6] for John Mason, an English-born Welsh wool-sorter and Lydia Sarah Campbell, a Quebec-born housewife of Scottish background.[7] [8] The family were members of the United Presbyterian Church. He was four when his father died in an accident at the factory where he and his brothers would later be employed. Like his older brothers, Mason became an apprentice weaver around twelve years of age. He suffered lifelong partial deafness from a swimming incident at age thirteen.[9] His mother died when he was fifteen, after which he went to Port Hope, Ontario and worked in a hardware store.[10]

Arrival in America

Mason moved to upstate New York about the time he turned 18 in 1880. He worked on farms then drifted to the Midwest, landing in St. Louis, Missouri.[11] There he got a job running a printing press for a short-lived humor magazine called The St. Louis Hornet. He also contributed writings to it, and became well known enough in the local area for an Illinois newspaper to quote him in 1881.[12] When the magazine folded Mason moved on to Frankfort, Kansas[13] where he rode the range as a cowhand.[14]

Early journalism

A weekly paper began publishing original poems by Walt Mason during October 1884.[15] Mason wrote a series called "Poems in Paranthesis" during October and November 1884 for The Frankfort Bee, one appearing each week.[16] [17] The editors indicated that besides writing poetry in his spare time, Mason was also a cartoonist.[18] These poems were in trochaic pentameter, with the ending of every other line rhyming;[19] Mason hadn't yet created the "prose poem" style for which he would later become famous. Mason's remuneration from The Frankfort Bee, if any, isn't known. Through December 1884 Mason submitted both poems[20] and prose pieces to The Frankfort Bee.[21] One of the latter, Riding a Texas Pony, was picked up and reprinted by other newspapers, including The Leavenworth Times.[22]

Later legend had it that Mason had submitted a poem to Col. Dan Anthony, editor of The Leavenworth Times, received $5 for it, and immediately went to work for the paper as a reporter at $8 a week. During February 1885, the newspaper started running a serialized straight prose work by Mason called Rough Times, a humorous account of life in a boarding house.[23] The Frankfort Bee reported in February that Mason was on the staff of The Leavenworth Times,[24] and by early March was its telegraph editor.[25]

Boom and bust cycle

Mason "severed connections" with The Leavenworth Times in late May 1885,[26] and by early June was employed by Edward Howe at The Atchison Globe.[27] Within six months he was city editor of the paper, while continuing to write original prose and poetry for it and other Kansas papers. After one year he left the Globe under murky circumstances[28] for the St. Louis Whip, an illustrated weekly where he was an assistant editor, writing advertising jingles.[29] This was an early instance of what Walt Mason later wrote was a cyclical occurrence in his life:

"I would equip myself with a good suit of clothes, and purple and fine linen, and become obtrusively respectable, and then of a sudden would come a great longing for the gilded saloon and the company of people who drank not wisely but too well. Then, poof! away would fly all the excellent resolutions, and I'd wake up some fine morning in a livery stable to find my raiment was in the pawnshop and that I couldn't remember whether it was Wednesday or the Chinese New Year."
In such fashion Mason moved from newspaper to newspaper until he was able to shake the booze habit for good, which he attributed to the Keeley Cure.[30] His only novel, The Man Who Sobered Up (1893) was written in celebration of this personal triumph.[31] By this time Mason was working on the Evening News in Washington, D.C.[32]

Returning to his small dairy farm in Beatrice, Nebraska, he tried running his own Saturday Summary newspaper during 1905–1906, but ran afoul of the postal authorities, who concluded it was little more than an advertising sheet and forbade its use of the mail for delivery.[33] [34] By January 1907 he was back "doing a special stint" writing editorials for the Beatrice Daily Express under the column name Side Issues.[35] [36] He had no position with the Express, rather he was living "in comparative retirement" as one Kansas paper reported.[37] He had by this time developed his unique style, prose sprinkled with rhymes, which he used for a widely printed sermon on drinking.[38]

By April 1907 Mason had taken an editorial position with the Atchison Champion, which had just converted from weekly to daily publication.[39] This lasted until July when he resigned, to edit a new literary and social weekly in Atchison.[40] But after three weeks his partner bought out his share of the start-up,[41] [42] and Mason wrote a column called Mosaics in the Topeka Daily Capital for a few weeks.[43]

Rise to fame

When Mason came to Emporia, Kansas in early October 1907 he was forty-five and a disillusioned man. The editor William Allen White had invited Mason to take a job with the already nationally prominent Emporia Gazette.[44] Mason's writing was well known in Nebraska and Kansas, but hadn't reached other parts of the country. Within two weeks of starting at the Gazette other Kansas newspapers noted the improvement in its editorial pages.[45] [46] After one month, Mrs. Mason, still living on their farm in Beatrice, Nebraska, joined him in Emporia.[47] The Topeka State Journal observed in December that Mason, who was telegraph editor, had been "writing doggeral rhymes as heads for the big news stories".[48] A later anecdote held that his prose poems first appeared in the Gazette when the city editor was shy a daily local-interest piece called the "star head",[49] and asked Mason to fill in with something. Mason obliged and the poem he wrote got picked up by the New York Daily News, bringing him to the attention of Eastern readers. Mason's prose poems were in later times often remembered for their sentiment and gentle humor, but he also wrote satires. Two of his victims were William Randolph Hearst, whom he skewered in The Nation's Hope,[50] and the little town of Iola, Kansas, to which he attributed a propensity for crime, scandal, and violence, all out of proportion to its size, in Quiet At Iola.[51] Hearst's reaction is unknown, while the newspapers of Iola were split: the Iola Daily Record reprinted it,[52] but the Iola Daily Index railed about the poem and criticized other Kansas newspapers that reprinted it as being "edited from Emporia".[53]

For Memorial Day of 1908 Mason wrote a prose poem called Little Green Tents that appeared in the "star head" of the Gazette,[54] that is often cited as one of his best. A work of gentle melancholy, it portrayed the graves of American Civil War soldiers and the surviving veterans as both worthy of remembrance. The following February, he wrote another such poem, called The Eyes of Lincoln, to mark Lincoln's Birthday.[55] Also celebrated as a fine example of his work, it was the first Mason poem offered for national syndication by George Matthew Adams.[56]

Syndication

The Adams Newspaper Service had already signed Mason's boss, William Allen White, to write a political column for syndication in 1908. Adams approached White at a political convention, showed him some clippings of Mason's work from the Gazette, and asked if he thought Mason would agree to syndication. White said sure, Mason would love it, so Adams signed him on at $18 a week to start. The column was titled Uncle Walt of Kansas starting in early 1909, which one local editor thought a disservice to Mason.[57] The same editor mentioned that the syndicate would be copyrighting Mason's work; prior to this other papers had copied Mason's stuff without paying him much, if anything.

According to Adams, some editors in other parts of the country objected to the "Kansas" in the column's title, so it was renamed that same year to just Uncle Walt, Poet and Philosopher,[58] or Uncle Walt On.... whatever the subject matter of the poem was.[59] Not until October 1914 did the column become Rippling Rhymes, after the title of Mason's fifth published book.[60]

Mason had a young colleague on the Emporia Gazette named Brock Pemberton, who wrote a profile of the man who was "Uncle Walt". Pemberton described him as a pudgy, dark-haired and dark-eyed fellow, who dressed casually in the office and was always smoking a pipe. He banged out his columns on a typewriter in a tiny room at the Gazette office, and when resting would place his hands on his ample waistline. He was passionately fond of horses, baseball, and music, and had an inclination towards pranking his colleagues and bosses. But his defining characteristic was an aptitude for creative work:

The most remarkable thing about this man, who perhaps writes for a larger reading public than any other writer... is his ability to write as much as he does. He has an inordinate capacity for work. He does not have to wait for his divine afflatus to come to him, for it is always with him. An event of the day demands a prose poem, and a few minutes work at the machine... produces it, without need of revision and such accurate and clean copy as to delight the editor's eye.
Pemberton also revealed the extent of mail pouring into the Gazette office from admirers of "Uncle Walt", from all parts of North America and overseas. His readers numbered in the millions; they encompassed both the famous and "the ordinary men and women of the crowd". The letters were often simply addressed to "Uncle Walt" or "The Fat One", which pleased Mason.

Books

Adams collected some of Mason's syndicated work into a book called Uncle Walt, published in Chicago during November 1910.[61] Like the newspaper columns, the book was copyrighted to Adams, not Mason. By that time Mason was earning $50 a week from syndication plus $30 weekly from a separate arrangement with the Chicago News.[62] Combined with his Emporia Gazette salary, editor William Allen White estimated Mason's monthly income at $500. The steady income allowed Mason to build a custom-designed home on one of the first paved streets in Emporia, a house which he referred to as his "igloo", and later came to be on the National Register of Historic Places.

Adams followed up in 1911 with Walt Mason's Business Prose Poems, a collection of custom advertising jingles and product homages written by Mason, some to the order of trade publications.[63] Mason's best-known book was Rippling Rhymes, published in October 1913. The first page contained remarks by many well-known writers about Mason's prose poems. George Ade called Mason "the high priest of horse sense", Sir Arthur Conan Doyle pronounced him "delightful", while James Whitcomb Riley enthused over the "facetious, capricious, delicious poems of Walt Mason". Mary Roberts Rinehart explained "I have Walt Mason and coffee every morning, and one is as necessary as the other, but coffee gives me heartburn and Walt doesn't". Theodore Dreiser recounted how Mason had enlivened "many a dreary railway journey" for him.Four more Walt Mason collections were published near annually: "Horse Sense" in Verses Tense (1915), Walt Mason - His Book (1916), Terse Verse (1917), and Lumber Lyrics (1919). Mason would continue writing his daily column for another twenty years, but no more collections were published in book form. By now Mason could afford to take his family to Estes Park, Colorado for summer vacations in his new touring car, though in deference to his age and partial deafness he hired a local lad to do the driving.[64]

Film shorts

Mason wrote six prose poems during 1917 to serve as the storyline for one-reel film shorts.[65] The films were created by the Film-Craft Corporation of New York using Mason's poems as the basis for the scenario. The first was The Dipper, which Mason showed to a select party at the Theater Royal in Emporia on January 25, 1917.[66] A few other films were scheduled to be released during August 1917.

Later life

Mason retired from the Emporia Gazette in April 1920, moving his family from Kansas to La Jolla, California.[67] They lived for a short time in Escondido, California,[68] while a house was built for them in La Jolla. Their new home had a back office where Walt continued to type out his daily column. For exercise he would walk to a bookstore in La Jolla every morning. His wife acted as a gatekeeper, shielding him from dubious callers hoping for a financial handout.[69] He was meticulous in writing his daily column up until January 1939, when at age 76 he was injured in a fall.[70]

From April 30, 1939, on he was bedridden with illness, which by June 1, 1939, was publicly revealed as kidney disease.[71] He fell into a coma during late June, dying of uremic poisoning on June 22, 1939.

Personal life

Walt Mason and K. Ella Foss were married February 15, 1893 at the home of her father Adam Foss in Wooster, Ohio.[72] Their Ohio marriage license, dated February 14, 1893, has him as Walter S. Mason, the only known reference to his middle name.[73]

Their only natural child, Adam Foss Mason, was born on February 18, 1894, in Beatrice, Nebraska.[74] He contracted diphtheria at age six, and died November 19, 1900.[75] Sometime around late 1912 or early 1913 the Masons adopted a six-year-old girl named Mary Ellen, who had been born in Minnesota.[76] [77] She remained living with her new parents through Ella Mason's death in 1936, and Walt Mason's death on June 22, 1939, in La Jolla, California.

Works

Aside from his daily newspaper columns, Mason is known to have written the following longer works:

Mason's prose poems for newspaper and magazines have been collected and published in the following volumes:

Notes and References

  1. News: Walt Mason Dead; Humorist, Poet, Age 77 . The New York Times . June 23, 1939 . New York, New York . 24 . NYTimes.com.
  2. News: He Rhymes No More . The Windsor Star . June 23, 1939 . Windsor, Ontario . 4 . Newspapers.com.
  3. News: Obituary - Walt Mason: Newspaper Poet Philospher . Daily News . June 23, 1939 . New York, New York . 181 . Newspapers.com.
  4. News: Pemberton . Brock . "Uncle Walt" Mason . The Decatur Herald . February 20, 1910 . Decatur, Illinois . 6 . Newspapers.com.
  5. Book: Mason, Walt . Rippling Rhymes . A. C. McClurg & Co. . 1913 . i .
  6. The anonymous profile of Mason written for Lumber Lyrics in 1919 says he was the fifth of six sons, but Canadian census records from 1861 and 1871 show he had five older brothers (William, Frederick, James, Charles, Andrew) and one younger (John).
  7. 1861 Census of Canada for John Mason, Canada West > Ontario, retrieved from Ancestry.com
  8. 1871 Census of Canada for Lydia Sarah Mason, Ontario > Ontario South > Whitby East, retrieved from Ancestry.com
  9. News: Death Calls Walt Mason . The Los Angeles Times . June 23, 1939 . Los Angeles, California . 2 . Newspapers.com.
  10. Book: Mason, Walt . Lumber Lyrics . Stewart-Simmons Press . 1919 . 6 .
  11. Book: Mason, Walt . Lumber Lyrics . Stewart-Simmons Press . 1919 . 7 .
  12. News: (Blind item) . Weekly Reaper . December 10, 1881 . Farmer City, Illinois . 8 . Newspapers.com.
  13. His brother Charles was already living there, and his brothers Andrew and James would in time move there as well.
  14. News: Death Takes Walt Mason At Age of 75 . The Long Beach Sun . June 23, 1939 . Long Beach, California . 4 . Newspapers.com.
  15. News: Local Happenstances . The Frankfort Bee . October 17, 1884 . Frankfort, Kansas . 11 . Newspapers.com.
  16. News: Original Odium . The Frankfort Bee . November 7, 1884 . Frankfort, Kansas . 1 . Newspapers.com.
  17. News: Original Odium . The Frankfort Bee . November 14, 1884 . Frankfort, Kansas . 1 . Newspapers.com.
  18. News: Local Happenstances . The Frankfort Bee . November 21, 1884 . Frankfort, Kansas . 5 . Newspapers.com.
  19. News: Original Odium . The Frankfort Bee . November 21, 1884 . Frankfort, Kansas . 1 . Newspapers.com.
  20. The poem Life and Death varied from his usual comic subject matter and employed a different metrical structure.
  21. News: Local Happenstances . The Frankfort Bee . December 12, 1884 . Frankfort, Kansas . 5 . Newspapers.com.
  22. News: Riding a Texas Pony . The Leavenworth Times . December 20, 1884 . Leavenworth, Kansas . 2 . Newspapers.com.
  23. News: Our Serial . The Leavenworth Times . February 8, 1885 . Leavenworth, Kansas . 4 . Newspapers.com.
  24. News: Local Happenstances . The Frankfort Bee . February 13, 1885 . Frankfort, Kansas . 5 . Newspapers.com.
  25. News: Local Happenstances . The Frankfort Bee . March 6, 1885 . Frankfort, Kansas . 5 . Newspapers.com.
  26. News: Local Happenstances . The Frankfort Bee . May 22, 1885 . Frankfort, Kansas . 5 . Newspapers.com.
  27. News: (No title) . The Leavenworth Standard . June 8, 1885 . Leavenworth, Kansas . 2 . Newspapers.com.
  28. Many Kansas newspapers reported he was going to the Chicago Herald, only for the Globe to correct them while referring to him as the "late" Walt Mason. His new position was definitely a come down from having been second-in-charge of a daily paper.
  29. News: (No title) . Atchison Daily Globe . May 22, 1886 . Atchison, Kansas . 4 . Newspapers.com.
  30. News: Annin . W. E. . Hemmed In By Heat . The Nebraska State Journal . August 13, 1893 . Lincoln, Nebraska . 1 . Newspapers.com.
  31. News: A Novel By Walt Mason . Fremont Tri-Weekly Tribune . August 1, 1893 . Fremont, Nebraska . 3 . Newspapers.com.
  32. News: He Sobered Up . The Virginian-Pilot . August 10, 1893 . Norfolk, Virginia . 2 . Newspapers.com.
  33. News: Denied Use of Mails . The Belleville Telescope . April 5, 1906 . Belleville, Kansas . 1 . Newspapers.com.
  34. News: (No title) . Frankfort Review . February 8, 1907 . Frankfort, Kansas . 6 . Newspapers.com.
  35. News: Random Shots . Fremont Tribune . January 2, 1907 . Fremont, Nebraska . 4 . Newspapers.com.
  36. News: Mason . Walt . Side Issues . Beatrice Daily Express . January 1, 1907 . Beatrice, Nebraska . 2 . Newspapers.com.
  37. News: A Sermon By Walt Mason . Goodland News . January 3, 1907 . Goodland, Kansas . 1 . Newspapers.com.
  38. News: Walt Mason's Latest . St. Joseph Observer . January 5, 1907 . St. Joseph, Missouri . 4 . Newspapers.com.
  39. News: (No title) . Frankfort Indeex . April 16, 1907 . Frankfort, Kansas . 2 . Newspapers.com.
  40. News: City News . The Atchison Daily Globe . July 12, 1907 . Atchison, Kansas . 4 . Newspapers.com.
  41. Fortunately for Mason, since the paper soon failed and the partner skipped town owing money.
  42. News: City News . The Atchison Daily Globe . August 8, 1907 . Atchison, Kansas . 8 . Newspapers.com.
  43. News: Mosaics . The Topeka Daily Capital . September 8, 1907 . Topeka, Kansas . 12 . Newspapers.com.
  44. News: Kansas Notes . The Leavenworth Times . October 18, 1907 . Leavenworth, Kansas . 2 . Newspapers.com.
  45. News: Wednesday, October 23, 1907 (editorial page) . The Wichita Beacon . October 23, 1907 . Wichita, Kansas . 4 . Newspapers.com.
  46. News: The "Co-Ed" Peril . The Fort Scott Republican . October 25, 1907 . Fort Scott, Kansas . 4 . Newspapers.com.
  47. News: Personals . The Atchison Daily Globe . November 21, 1907 . Atchison, Kansas . 4 . Newspapers.com.
  48. News: Jayhawker Jots . The Topeka State Journal . December 5, 1907 . Topeka, Kansas . 4 . "Here is one... over the account of the Bradley trial: 'The trial progresses, with windy addresses by lawyers paid by the day; the little mint julip, as shy as a tulip, sobs over what they say'." . Newspapers.com.
  49. So called because it appeared at the top of page 1 surrounded on all sides by a border of asterisks.
  50. Book: Mason, Walt . Uncle Walt . George Matthew Adams . 1910 . 39 .
  51. News: Mason . Walt . Quiet At Iola . The Weekly Republican . December 20, 1907 . Cherryvale, Kansas . 4 . Newspapers.com.
  52. News: Mason . Walt . Peace at Iola . Iola Daily Record . December 14, 1907 . Iola, Kansas . 1 . Newspapers.com.
  53. News: Official Town Knockers . Iola Daily Index . December 16, 1907 . Iola, Kansas . 1 . Newspapers.com.
  54. News: Mason . Walt . Little Green Tents . Emporia Gazette . May 30, 1908 . Emporia, Kansas . 3 . Newspapers.com.
  55. News: Mason . Walt . The Eyes of Lincoln . The Dispatch-Republican . February 15, 1909 . Clay Center, Kansas . 2 . Newspapers.com.
  56. News: Driscoll . C. B. . New York Day By Day . The Palm Beach Post . July 16, 1939 . Palm Beach, Florida . 4, 9 . Newspapers.com.
  57. News: Vernon . Charles M. . Manhattan, Kan., Mar. 4, 1909 . Manhattan Mercury . March 4, 1909 . Manhattan, Kansas . 4 . Newspapers.com.
  58. News: Mason . Walt . Uncle Walt, Poet, Philosopher . The Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette . May 15, 1909 . Cedar Rapids, Iowa . 5 . Newspapers.com.
  59. News: Mason . Walt . Uncle Walt On Literature . The Springfield Leader and Press . July 23, 1909 . Springfield, Missouri . 4 . Newspapers.com.
  60. News: Mason . Walt . Rippling Rhymes . The Beloit Daily Call . October 5, 1914 . Beloit, Kansas . 2 . Newspapers.com.
  61. Book: Mason, Walt . Uncle Walt . George Matthew Adams . 1910 .
  62. News: White . William Allen . Mr. Mason's New Book . Emporia Gazette . November 4, 1910 . Emporia, Kansas . 1 . Newspapers.com.
  63. Book: Mason, Walt . Walt Mason's Business Prose Poems . George Matthew Adams . 1911 .
  64. News: The Old Home Town . Emporia Gazette . August 2, 1917 . Emporia, Kansas . 4 . Newspapers.com.
  65. News: Walt Mason In The Movies Now . The Chanute Tribune . August 1, 1917 . Chanute, Kansas . 6 . Newspapers.com.
  66. News: Walt Mason's Movie . The Emporia Gazette . January 25, 1917 . Emporia, Kansas . 5 . Newspapers.com.
  67. News: Goodbye "Uncle Walt" . The Emporia Gazette . April 29, 1920 . Emporia, Kansas . 6 . Newspapers.com.
  68. News: Mrs. Walt Mason Taken By Death . The Escondido Times-Advocate . October 20, 1936 . Escondido, California . 1 . Newspapers.com.
  69. News: An Old Friend . The Emporia Gazette . October 28, 1936 . Emporia, Kansas . 2 . Newspapers.com.
  70. News: Driscoll . Charles B. . New York Day By Day . The San Bernardino County Sun . January 31, 1939 . San Bernardino, California . 20 . Newspapers.com.
  71. News: Condition Of Walt Mason Is Serious . The Lincoln Star . June 1, 1939 . Lincoln, Nebraska . 2 . Newspapers.com.
  72. News: Walt Mason Weds . The Beatrice Daily Express . February 16, 1893 . Beatrice, Nebraska . 4 . Newspapers.com.
  73. Ohio, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1774-1993, for Walter S. Mason, Wayne > 1887-1898, retrieved from Ancestry.com
  74. News: Walt Mason Jr. . The Beatrice Daily Express . February 19, 1894 . Beatrice, Nebraska . 4 . Newspapers.com.
  75. News: Obituary: Adam Foss Mason . The Beatrice Evening times . November 19, 1900 . Beatrice, Nebraska . 3 . Newspapers.com.
  76. News: Happy May Day Children . The Emporia Gazette . May 2, 1913 . Emporia, Kansas . 4 . Newspapers.com.
  77. 1930 United States Federal Census for Walt Mason, California > San Diego > San Diego > District 0047, retrieved from Ancestry.com
  78. News: Without A Compass . The Clipper-Citizen . September 1, 1893 . Lexington, Nebraska . 1 . "With this thrilling climax the tale concluded. The next Sunday's paper appeared, but in the place of 'The Prodigal Daughter' the eager reader saw naught but an advertisement of Dr. Mixem's Lubricative Cough Syrup. Walt had been on a protracted drunk (pardon the reference; he don't drink now) and the thread of the narrative was hopelessly tangled in a job lot of snakes." . Newspapers.com.