Ernest Thayer facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ernest Thayer
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| Born | August 14, 1863 Lawrence, Massachusetts, US |
| Died | August 21, 1940 (aged 77) Santa Barbara, California, US |
| Pen name | Phin |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Spouse | Rosalind Buel Hammett |
| Partner | Rose Washington |
| Children | 1 |
Ernest Lawrence Thayer (August 14, 1863 – August 21, 1940) was an American writer and poet. He is most famous for writing the poem "Casey at the Bat". This poem is known as "the single most famous baseball poem ever written." It's also called "the nation’s best-known piece of comic verse." It created a lasting legend, much like stories of Johnny Appleseed or Paul Bunyan.
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About Ernest Thayer
Ernest Thayer was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He grew up in nearby Worcester. He went to Harvard University and graduated with high honors in 1885. At Harvard, he was an editor for the Harvard Lampoon magazine. He was also part of a theater group called Hasty Pudding.
A friend from Harvard, William Randolph Hearst, hired Thayer. Hearst owned a newspaper called The San Francisco Examiner. Thayer worked there as a humor writer from 1886 to 1888.
The Famous Poem: Casey at the Bat
Ernest Thayer's last writing for the Examiner was a poem called "Casey" (or "Casey at the Bat"). He wrote it on June 3, 1888. This poem made him famous for just one work.
Thayer signed the poem with his nickname "Phin." He had used this name since his time at the Harvard Lampoon. It took several months for the poem to become widely known.
Mysteries of Casey and Mudville
Two mysteries remain about the poem. Were Casey and Mudville based on real people or places? If so, who or where were they?
Some towns claim to be the real "Mudville." These include Stockton, California, and Holliston, Massachusetts.
Thayer said that no single baseball player inspired Casey. However, a famous player from the late 1880s, Mike "King" Kelly, might have influenced the baseball scenes. Thayer reported on baseball games for the San Francisco Examiner. He covered exhibition games featuring Kelly in 1887-1888. Some of his reports about Kelly's turns at bat sound like Casey's famous moment in the poem.
In a letter from 1905, Thayer mentioned Kelly. Kelly had claimed to inspire the poem, which Thayer found "impudent." Kelly also performed as a vaudeville actor. He recited the poem many times.
Public Performances
The poem was first performed in public on August 14, 1888. This was Ernest Thayer's 25th birthday. The actor De Wolf Hopper performed it. Thayer himself recited the poem at a Harvard class reunion in 1895.
Later Life
In the mid-1890s, Thayer wrote more comic poems for Hearst's newspaper, New York Journal. After that, he focused on managing his family's mills in Worcester.
In 1912, Thayer moved to Santa Barbara. He married Rosalind Buel Hammett there and retired. He passed away in 1940, seven days after his 77th birthday.
