Berton Braley (29 January 1882 – 23 January 1966) was an American poet. His best-known poem is "The Will to Win", written in a motivational tone.

Life and work

Braley was born in Madison, Wisconsin. His father, Arthur B. Braley, was a judge; he died when Berton Braley was seven years old. At 16, Braley quit high school and got a job working as a factory hand at a plow plant. After a few years, Braley went back to school and received his high school diploma. Shortly thereafter he discovered Tom Hood's poetry instructional book ''The Rhymester''. He spent some time after 1905 living in

Butte, Montana Butte ( ) is a consolidated city-county and the county seat of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. The city covers , and, according to the 2 ...

, working as a staff journalist on the ''Butte Evening News'' (published 1905–1911). Braley was first published at the age of 11 when a small publication printed a fairy tale he wrote. He was a prolific writer, with verses in many magazines, including ''Coal Age'', ''

American Machinist The ''American Machinist'' is an American trade magazine of the international machine industry, machinery industries and most especially their machining aspects. Published since 1877, it was a McGraw-Hill title for over a century before becoming ...

'', ''Nation's Business'', ''

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'' magazine, ''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States. ''Harper's Magazine'' has ...

'', ''

Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 ...

'', and the ''

Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine published six times a year. It was published weekly from 1897 until 1963, and then every other week until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influ ...

''. His work appeared in numerous

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s, including ''Adventure'', ''Breezy Stories'', ''Complete Stories'', ''The Popular Magazine'', ''Short Stories'' and ''Snappy Stories''. He published twenty books, about half of them being poetry collections. His poetry was given national newspaper syndication, including some that were serialized with cartoon illustrations by

Virginia Huget Virginia Clark (December 22, 1899 – June 27, 1991), better known as Virginia Huget, was a prolific and versatile American comic strip artist and writer. She is known for her comic strips depicting flappers and for broadening the flapper image by ...

for newspaper Sunday color sections. In 1917,

John Philip Sousa John Philip Sousa ( , ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic music, Romantic era known primarily for American military March (music), marches. He is known as "The March King" or th ...

composed a marching song for the University of Wisconsin, titled ''Wisconsin Forward Forever'' with lyrics by Berton Braley. In 1934, Braley published the autobiographical ''Pegasus Pulls a Hack: Memoirs of a Modern Minstrel''. His poem "Do It Now" became widely reprinted after 1915. The poem begins: The poem was also set as a hymn in Presbyterian hymnbooks and sung by glee clubs. His other popular poems include "Start where you stand"

Selected list of works

Braley was a prolific author of poems, prose, plays, and humorous non-fiction articles
''Sonnets of a Freshman''
(1904). Illustrated by C. R. Freeman. Madison, WI:

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.
''The Oracle on Smoke: being a few utterances in a simple and not at all delphic style, with certain so-called poems there among scattered''
(1905). Madison, WI: The Sphinx, printed by the Parsons Printery. (Slim volume on tobacco smoking)
''Thoughtful Captain Jenkins''
illustrated by Reginald Birch.

The Century Magazine ''The Century Magazine'' was an illustrated monthly magazine first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City, which had been bought in that year by Roswell Smith and renamed by him after the Century Associati ...

, March 1912, pp. 796–7
''Sonnets of a Suffragette''
(1913). Chicago: Browne & Howell Company
''Songs of the Workaday World''
(1915). New York: George H. Doran Company
''Things As They Are''
(1916). New York: George H. Doran Company
''A Banjo at Armageddon''
(1917). New York: George H. Doran Company
''In Camp and Trench: Songs of the Fighting Forces''
(1918). New York: George H. Doran Company *
Buddy Ballads
Songs of the A.E.F.'' (1919). New York: George H. Doran Company
''The Sheriff Of Silver Bow''
(1921). New York: Jacobsen Publishing Co. (Short stories) * ''Hurdy-Gurdy on Olympus'' (1927). Illustrated by D'Alton Valentine. New York, London: D. Appleton and Co.
''The World's One Thousand Best Poems''
(10 volumes) (1929) (as editor-in-chief). New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company. (Encrypted text, needs key from US National Library Service) * ''Pegasus Pulls a Hack : Memoirs of a Modern Minstrel'' (1934). New York: Minton, Balch & Company. (Autobiography) * ''Morgan sails the Caribbean'' (1934). New York: Macmillan. (Verse. Includes incidents from ''The Cup of Gold'' by

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck ( ; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social percep ...

)''Sincerity of John Steinbeck''
by Marion Whelpley, pp. 132-3 (Thesis, 1941) * ''New Deal Ditties; or, Running in the red with Roosevelt'' (1936). New York: Greenberg

Poetry collections

* Abrams, Linda Tania (editor). ''Virtues in Verse: The Best of Berton Braley.'' California, The Atlantean Press. 1993.start where you stand .

References

External links

Berton Braley Cyber Museum

{{DEFAULTSORT:Braley, Berton 1882 births 1966 deaths 20th-century American poets Writers from Madison, Wisconsin Place of death missing