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Madge Morris Wagner (née Morris; 1862-1924) was an American poet and journalist associated with The Golden Era.
Madge Morris was born April 25, 1862, on the Great Plains when her parents were enroute to California. She was a descendant of Capt. Morris, who built Fort Morris, in Virginia.
She was educated in the common schools.
Early on, Wagner became a journalist and poet..
Wagner's early work in verse was begun in San Jose, California. There she served as reporter and special writer on J. J. Owen's Daily Mercury, with many of her stanzas appearing there, too. Her notability dates to an order given her, half in jest, by Owen to go to the top of the 180 feet (55 m) electric tower at Market and Santa Clara streets, and write a poem on the panorama of Santa Clara Valley to be seen from that dangerous height. Madge took the order seriously. In those days, there was a big bucket run with a windlass which took the electrician up to inspect the lanterns on top. Climbing into this bucket, she was hauled up the tower. Here, unfazed by the dizzy height, she wrote:
"I stood on the topmost tower,
And never again till I die,
Shall I glimpse such a wondrous dower
As came in that vision high."
Her patriotic poem "Liberty Bell" led to the construction of the Columbian Liberty Bell. From 1885 to 1895, she was the editor of The Golden Era, to which Bret Harte, Joaquin Miller, and Mark Twain were constant contributors. Wagner is the author of Débris, a Book of Poems (San Francisco, 1881); Mystery of Carmel, and other Poems (1885); and a novel, The Titled Plebeian (1890).
In the prime of her life, she lived in a cottage in Joaquin Miller Park, later named the Madge Morris Wagner Lodge.
References
- ^ Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John (1901). Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography. D. Appleton. p. 273. Retrieved 13 January 2025 – via Wikisource.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Wait Colburn, Frona Eunice (May 1924). "A California Poetess - As I Knew Her". Overland Monthly and The Out West Magazine. Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine. Retrieved 13 January 2025. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.