Many Americans are familiar with the poem "Trees," but few know anything about Joyce Kilmer, the poem's author, or his other works. Some might know a little about Kilmer's death on a French battlefield in 1918 at the age of 31, but probably nothing more. Although a friend and literary associate wrote a brief memoir and Kilmer's son wrote of his memories of his father (described below), there has been no complete biography of Kilmer until Write-Fit Communications' publication of Joyce Kilmer: A Literary Biography by John Covell.

Joyce Kilmer:
A Literary Biography
By John E. Covell
Published June 2000
Write-Fit Communications
Hardcover, 256 pages
ISBN 0-615-11175-0

Price per copy:

$25.00 (U.S.A.)
$34.00 (Canada)

$4.00 per copy priority mail
$2.00 per copy book rate

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The photograph on the book's dust jacket shows an original pastel portrait of Kilmer done by his granddaughter, Miriam Kilmer, seventy years after his death. See her Web site for prints of the portrait, http://www.risingdove.com/kilmer/Trees.image.asp. For additional information on her grandfather and on the rest of the Kilmer family, click the Joyce Kilmer et Al link at the top of that page.

Covell's source for most of Kilmer's letters was Kenton Kilmer's Memories of My Father, Joyce Kilmer. In addition to his father's correspondence, Kenton Kilmer included family photographs, some of his father's poems, and some poems by his mother, Aline Kilmer, along with family reminiscences. Memories of My Father, Joyce Kilmer (1993, 288 pages, ISBN 0-9637524-0-5), is available from the Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission. Write to the following address for details:

Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission
Joyce Kilmer Birthplace
17 Joyce Kilmer Avenue
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-2507

The first printing of the new biography, Joyce Kilmer: A Literary Biography, is available only by mail order from the author, John Covell, through Write-Fit Communications. Please see the mail-order form for details.