By far, the most frequently scrapbooked poet of the twentieth century was Edgar Guest, the “people’s poet” of the Detroit Free Press whose daily newspaper poems were syndicated to hundreds of newspapers across the U.S. Like a celebrity rock star, he broadcast verse on the radio, published books, went on speaking tours, and authored poems on calendars, greeting cards, wall hangings, advertisements, and other promotional materials. Many of his fans dedicated entire scrapbooks just to his poems.
In 1935, for example, a fan of Ted Malone’s popular radio poetry show Between the Bookends wrote to Malone asking for reading recommendations. “I would appreciate your telling me of some books of poems,” she explained, “not the old poets, seems as I have all of them. I have 1500 of Edgar Guest’s poems and several other Scrap Books. My mother thinks it’s an awful hobby but I send them to friends and copy several for ‘Shut Ins’ there’s not a day that passes but that I try to do something for someone.”
For some examples of Edgar Guest scrapbooks kept by different readers, click on the links below.
Scrapbook One • Scrapbook Two • Scrapbook Three
Scrapbook Four • Scrapbook Five • Scrapbook Six