Desperaudio

Newspaper History

American newspaper poems dating back 108 years.

These poems are the result of a project that lasted from 2020 to 2023. A newspaper poem from 108 years prior was posted each day for approximately 3 years. This resulted in a collection of 1,055 newspaper poems published in American newspapers from 1912 to 1915.

Authors

Alfred Noyes Arthur Chapman Bayoll ne Trele Berton Braley Bret Harte Charles Kingsley David Duncan M. Smith Edgar A. Guest Edmund Vance Cooke Edwin Markham Ella Wheeler Wilcox Eugene Field Frank L. Stanton Grantland Rice H. S. Haskins Henry Howland Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Herbert Kaufman J. W. Foley James J. Montague John A. Joyce John Boyle O'Reilly John Kendrick Bangs Judd Mortimer Lewis Madison Cawein Margaret E. Sangster Mary Mapes Dodge McLandburgh Wilson Minna Irving Ninette M. Lowater Philander Johnson Roy K. Moulton Rudyard Kipling S. E. Kiser Samuel Minturn Peck Shooting Stars Thomas Lomax Hunter W. D. Nesbit W. J. Lampton Walt Mason Wilbur D. Nesbit William Cowper William F. Kirk Wing Dinger

Newspapers

Why 108 years?

Going back a century felt somewhat arbitrary. Searching for more fertile time spans, I looked at weather, astronomical events, mathematics, business, and superstitions. Multiples of the Metonic cycle (19 years) were interesting, as were planetary returns. The number 108 is significant in some cultures, and it has interesting factors: two squared times three cubed.

Comparing the results of various timespans, 108 years was consistently fruitful. Newspaper material from 108 years ago is safely in the public domain, and so after some practical research, it became the timespan used for Newspaper History.