Are we the eagle nation Milton saw
Mewing its mighty youth,
Soon to possess the mountain winds of truth,
And be a swift familiar of the sun
Where aye before God's face his trumpets run?
        (An Ode in Time of Hesitation, 172-176)

1. An Ode in Time of Hesitation

Notes on Life and Works

William Vaughn Moody was born on July 8, 1869, in Spenser, Indiana, and his family moved in 1871 to New Albany. He obtained his B.A. (1893) and M.A. (1894) at Harvard University, where he became co-editor of the Harvard Monthly, and joined its English Department in the 1894-95 academic year as assistant to Louis E. Gates. Moody lectured at the University of Chicago in 1895 and stayed there until 1907 when, having risen to Assistant Professor, he left academe to write poetry. By then he had published three verse plays, The Masque of Judgment (1900), The Fire-Bringer (1904), and The Great Divide (1907), one volume of poems (1901), an edition of Milton's works (1899), and a history of English literature (1907). 1908 earned him a D. Litt. at Yale University and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Moody married Harriet C. Brainerd on May 7, 1909, and died in Colorado Springs on Oct. 17, 1910.

• Dictionary of American Biography. Vol. VII. Ed. Dumas Malone. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934.
• Milton, John. Complete Poetical Works. Ed. William Vaughn Moody. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1899. PR 3550 .F24 1899 Robarts Library
• Moody, William Vaughn. The Faith Healer: A Play in Four Acts. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1909. PS 2427 F35 1909 Robarts Library
• --. The Fire-bringer. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1904. PS 2427 F5 1904
• --. Letters to Harriet. Ed. Percy MacKaye. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1935. PS 2428 A47 1935 Robarts Library
• --. The Masque of Judgment, a Masque-drama in Five Acts and a Prelude. Boston: Small, 1900.
• --. Poems. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1901. PS 2425 A4 1901
• --. Poems and Plays. Intro. John M. Manly. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1912. PS 2425 A2 1912 Robarts Library
• --. Selected Poems. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1931. 811.5 Moo Se Trinity College
• --. Some Letters of William Vaughn Moody. Ed. Daniel Gregory Mason. New York: AMS Press, 1969. PS 2428 A4 1969
• --, and Robert Morss Lovett. A History of English Literature. New York: Scribner, 1904. 2 vols. PR 85 .M6 1904 Robarts Library
• Stockney, Trumbull. Poems. Ed. George Cabot Lodge, William Vaughn Moody, and John Clierton Lodge. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1905. PS 3537 T525 1905
• Who Was Who in America. Vol. I: 1897-1942. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1981.

Biographical information

Given name: William Vaughn
Family name: Moody
Birth date: 8 July 1869
Death date: 17 October 1910
Nationality: American
Family relations
          husband: Harriet C. Moody
Education
          Harvard University (B.A.): 1889 to 1893
          Harvard University (M.A.): 1893 to 1894
          Yale University (D. Litt.) to 1908
Honour: American Academy of Arts and Letters member: 1908
Literary period: Realistic
Residences
          Colorado Springs to 1907
          Spenser, Indiana: 1869 to 1871
          New Albany: 1871
          Cambridge, Mass.: 1889 to 1895
          Chicago: 1895 to 1907
Cause of death: Brain cancer
Buried at: Colorado Springs
First RPO edition: 2001