with the conventional world he left behind. His spirit, however, was now so fully freed and so sure of the right to its freedom that it was beyond the need of excuses or extenuations. There was his bright record as husband, father, citizen. Through the longevity that had been vouchsafed to him, he had these years left and he acknowledged no human mortgage upon them except that of humanity itself.
Working in the unlimited compass of the freedom thus taken, he has come to be regarded by many as one of the great poets of America and by some as one of the great men of his age. Perhaps partly for reasons connected with his emancipation, the people of Oregon, who have been so proudly possessive of Edwin Markham's first five childhood years, have not been so fully aware of the grace that is theirs for having had so long among them this gifted man who is to Markham about as Whitman is to Longfellow.
He was born on February 20, 1852, at Erie, Pennsylvania, and received his early education at Erie Academy and Baltimore City College before entering West Point. After graduating from the Military Academy, he spent ten years as a second and first lieutenant in the army, meanwhile by serious use of his spare time getting a bachelor of philisophy degree and a law degree from Columbia University, New York.
He was stationed for a while at Vancouver Barracks and, securing a furlough, spent part of 1876 and 1877 in Alaska. He served in the Nez Percé campaign in 1877 and in the Bannock and Piute campaign the following year. During his army days he contributed articles to periodicals, including "Among
