William Lightfoot Visscher, poet, was born at Owingsville, Kentucky,
November 25, 1842. He was educated at the Bath Seminary, Owingsville,
and graduated in law from the University of Louisville, but he never
practiced. He was a soldier in the Civil War for four years. Colonel
Visscher--which title he did not win upon the battlefield!--has been
connected with more newspapers than he now cares to count; and he has
written hundreds of verses which have appeared in periodicals and in
book form. He is the author of five novels: _Carlisle of Colorado_;
_Way Out Yonder_; _Thou Art Peter_; _Fetch Over the Canoe_ (Chicago,
1908); and _Amos Hudson's Motto_. The first of these is the best known
work he has done in prose fiction. His _Thrilling and Truthful History
of the Pony Express_ (Chicago, 1908), filled a small gap in American
history. A little group of biographical sketches and newspaper
reminiscences, called _Ten Wise Men and Some More_ (Chicago, 1909), is
interesting. Colonel Visscher has also published five books of verse:
_Black Mammy; Harp of the South; Blue Grass Ballads and Other Verse_
(Chicago, 1900); _Chicago: an Epic_, and his most recent volume,
_Poems of the South and Other Verses_ (Chicago, 1911). The colonel is
also a popular lecturer; and he has actually put paint on his face and
essayed acting. He is a poet of the Old South, one reading his verse
would at once conclude that not to have been born in Kentucky before
the war, one might as well never have lived at all. He is a versified,
pocket-edition of Mr. Thomas Nelson Page; and while he has not reached
the sublime heights of true poesy, he has written some delicious
dialect and much pleasing verse. _Proem_, printed in two of his books,
is certainly the best thing he has done hitherto.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _The Century Magazine_ (July, 1902); _Who's Who in
America_ (1912-1913).