William F. Marvin, "the latter-day drunken poet of Danville," was born
at Leicestershire, England, in 1804. He emigrated to America when a
young man, and made his home in the little town of Danville, Kentucky.
Marvin was a shoemaker by trade, but verse-making and bacchanalian
nights were his heart's delight and perfect pleasures. He was a
well-known character in Danville and the surrounding country, and many
are the old wives' tales they tell on the old poet to this day. On one
occasion, while in his cups, of course, he attempted suicide, using
his shoe knife on his throat, but he was finally persuaded that a shoe
knife could be put to far better purposes. Marvin served in the
Mexican War, and on his return home, he published his first and only
book of verse, _The Battle of Monterey and Other Poems_ (Danville,
Kentucky, 1851). The title-poem, _The Battle of Monterey_, is a rather
lengthy metrical romance of some forty or more pages; but the "other
poems," called also "miscellaneous poems," extend the book to its 219
pages. A few of these are worthy of preservation, especially the
shorter lyrics. Marvin's book is now extremely rare. The writer has
located not more than six copies, though a large edition was printed
by the poet's publisher, Captain A. S. McGrorty, who is still in the
land of the living. During the closing years of his life Marvin
contributed occasional poems to the old _Kentucky Advocate_, the
Danville newspaper, his last poem having appeared in that paper,
called _The Beauty, Breadth, and Depth of Love_. William F. Marvin
died at Danville, Kentucky, July 12, 1879, and was buried in the
cemetery of the town. To-day his grave may be identified, but it is
unmarked by a monument. His verse certainly shows decided improvement
over the rhymes of Thomas Johnson, but both of them were imperfect
forerunners of that celebrated poet and distinguished soldier, who was
born at Danville about the time Marvin reached there and set up his
shop on Main street--Theodore O'Hara, the highest poetic note in the
literature of old Kentucky.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Kentucky Advocate_ (Danville, July 14, 1879);
letters from G. W. Doneghy, the Danville poet of to-day, author of
_The Old Hanging Fork, and Other Poems_ (Franklin, Ohio, 1897), to
the writer.