1881 - 1888

1891 - 1911

1912 - 1941

1942 - 1973

Year	John Neihardt - Epic Poet of The American West 1881 - 1973	Photos
1881	John Gneisenau Neihardt, man of poetry, philosophy, and celebrator of the old west with all its hopes, dreams and despair. Born near Sharpsburg, Illinois, on January 8th 1881, when the vast frontier still had the lure of discovery and adventure. Neihardt would experience the harsh homestead life of drought, famine, and fire of the Great American Plains.
1886	His family moved to a sod house in northwestern Kansas where Neihardt describes the condition of the Great Plains : "The Kansas hotwind is not just a common wind that happens to be hotter than winds usually are.It may better be conceived as a mighty self-completing Presence, a sort of elemental Being that takes over and destroys." The cornstalks, drooping in bitter dust, Despairing mothers widowed in silk, With swaddled babies dead for want of milk Moaned to the wind the universal death	Sod House
1888	Neihardt's family moved to Kansas City in 1888 where his father took two jobs, one as a night watchmen at a disreputable hotel and another as a Kansas City cable-car operator. After an absence, Neihardt's father returned late one night but his wife would not allow him in and he left never to be heard from again. During this period Neihardt read avidly and was introduced to the Iliad and Odyssey and other Greek classics by the mother of a neighbour friend.	Kansas City