Kilmer was educated at Columbia University and from 1909 to 1912 worked as an editor on the dictionary staff of Funk and Wagnall's. In 1913 he joined the New York Times. At the outbreak of war with Germany in 1917, Kilmer, although not required because of his age, enlisted in the Army. Transferred to France in late 1917, Kilmer was attached to the Regimental Intelligence staff as an observer. On July 30th, 1918 while attached as adjutant to Major William Donovan, commanding the First Battalion, Kilmer was killed by a sniper's bullet at the battle of the Ourcq. Today Kilmer is best remembered for his poem Trees, published in 1914 as Trees and Other Poems, which begins with the now famous line, "I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a tree...". Kilmer's other pubished works were Summer of Love (1911) The Circus and Other Essays (1916); Main Street and Other Poems (1917); and Literature in the Making (1917), a series of interviews with writers. |
Chrysoma Associates Limited
