Harry Kemp
Harry Hibbard Kemp (December 15, 1883 – August 5, 1960) was an American poet and prose writer of the twentieth century. He was known as (and promoted himself as) the "Vagabond Poet", the "Villon of America", the "Hobo Poet", or the "Tramp Poet", and was a well-known popular literary figure of his era, the "hero of adolescent Americans." Life and work Kemp was born in Youngstown, Ohio, the only son of a candymaker. He was raised by his grandmother, in a house by the local train yards. At the age of seventeen he left home to become a common seaman; after returning to the United States he traveled across the country by riding the rails as a hobo. In his early twenties he attended Mount Hermon School, from which he was expelled around December 1906, and later the University of Kansas. While a student he began publishing verse in newspapers and magazines. In 1910, Upton Sinclair and his wife Meta built a house in the single-tax village of Arden, Delaware. In 1911, Sinclair invited Kemp to camp on the couple's land there. Meta soon became enamored with Kemp, and in late August she left Sinclair for the poet. His part