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Edward Rowland Sill (April 29, 1841 – February 27, 1887) American poet and essayist was born in Winsor, Connecticut. He was orphaned when young and brought up by his uncle, Elisha Sill in Ohio.

At seventeen he entered Yale where a classmate related in his diary, "We haven't got much of a class, but Sill is somewhat of a genius, to be sure."1 He graduated in 1861 and attended divinity school but left it to work for the New York Evening Mail. He also taught for three years in Ohio before moving to California due to poor health.

In 1871 Sill became a principal at a high school in Oakland, California and in 1874 was appointed Professor Of English language at California University where he remained until 1882 when he resigned and returned to Ohio to again pursue literary work. There he remained, writing, mainly anonymously until his death in a Cleveland hospital after having undergone an operation.

Sill wrote poetry and prose throughout his life but only one collection of his poetry, "The Hermitage and Other Poems" (1867) was published in his lifetime. After his death at the age of 45, his abundant collection of writings were discovered and seven collections of his works were then published posthumously. Sill was said to be, "a modest and charming man, a graceful essayist, a sure critic."2

Notes:

(1) Edward Rowland Sill His Life And Work By William Belmont Parker, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1915 (Page 12)
(2) Love To Know Classic Encyclopedia, http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Edward_Rowland_Sill

Works:

The Hermitage and Other Poems (1868)
The Venus of Milo and Other Poems (1883)
Poems (1887)
The Hermitage and Later Poems (1889)
Hermione and Other Poems (1900)
The Prose of Edward Rowland Sill (1900)
Poems (1902)

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