Ogden Nash
| Ogden Nash | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Frederic Ogden Nash August 19, 1902 Rye, New York |
| Died | May 19, 1971 (aged 68) Baltimore, Maryland |
| Cause of death | Crohn's disease |
| Education | Harvard University (for 1 year) |
| Occupation | Poet, author, lyricist, pianist |
| Spouse(s) | Frances Leonard |
| Children | Isabel and Linell |
| Parent(s) | Edmund and Mattie |
Frederic Ogden Nash (August 19, 1902 – May 19, 1971) was an American poet well known for his light verse. At the time of his death in 1971, The New York Times said his "droll verse with its unconventional rhymes made him the country's best-known producer of humorous poetry". Nash wrote over 500 pieces of comic verse. The best of his work was published in 14 volumes between 1931 and 1972.
Nash was born in Rye, New York, the son of Mattie (Chenault) and Edmund Strudwick Nash. His father owned and operated an import-export company, and because of business obligations, the family relocated often. Nash was descended from Abner Nash, an early governor of North Carolina. The city of Nashville, Tennessee, was named for Abner's brother, Francis, a Revolutionary War general.
Throughout his life, Nash loved to rhyme. "I think in terms of rhyme, and have since I was six years old," he stated in a 1958 news interview. He had a fondness for crafting his own words whenever rhyming words did not exist, though admitting that crafting rhymes was not always the easiest task.
His family lived briefly in Savannah, Georgia, in a carriage house owned by Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA; he wrote a poem about Mrs. Low's House. After graduating from St. George's School in Newport County, Rhode Island, Nash entered Harvard University in 1920, only to drop out a year later.
He returned as a teacher to St. George's for one year before returning to New York. There, he took up selling bonds, about which Nash reportedly quipped, "Came to New York to make my fortune as a bond salesman and in two years sold one bond—to my godmother. However, I saw lots of good movies." Nash then took a position as a writer of the streetcar card ads for Barron Collier, a company that previously had employed another Baltimore resident, F. Scott Fitzgerald. He spent three months in 1931 working on the editorial staff for The New Yorker.
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