Rare Autograph, Photograph and Manuscript Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/13/2017
Rare AMQS by the poet Sam Walter Foss, from his work known as the” Side of the Road”. Foss (June 19, 1858 - February 26, 1911) was an American librarian and poet whose best known works included The House by the Side of the Road and The Coming American. On Summerville Public Library letterhead, titled "The House by the Side of the Road", signed "Sam Walter Foss", dated "Dec. 19, 1899". “Let me live in my house by the side of the road Where the race of men go by- They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong, Wise, foolish- so am I. Then why should I sit in the scorner’s seat Or hurl the cynic’s ban?- Let me live in my house by the side of the road And be a friend to man Sincerely Yours, Sam Walter Foss” For many years the opening lines from Foss's The Coming American ("Bring me men to match my mountains / Bring me men to match my plains / Men with empires in their purpose / And new eras in their brains") were inscribed on a granite wall at the United States Air Force Academy to inspire cadets and officers, but they were removed in 2003 to harmonize in perception to the Air Force Academy's having become coeducational. These words are currently engraved and displayed at Epcot in Orlando, Florida and at the south end of the Jesse M. Unruh Building near the State Capitol building in Sacramento, CA. These opening lines are inscribed onto the Rocky Mountain Cup trophy, which is contested annually between MLS teams Real Salt Lake and Colorado Rapids. Longtime baseball announcer Ernie Harwell alluded to Foss's The House by the Side of the Road whenever he described a batter taking a called third strike: "He stood there like the house by the side of the road and watched it go b8 1/2" x 11"
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