San Francisco-Monterey County CA Archives Biographies.....Sterling, George December 17, 1869 - November 1926
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Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com October 30, 2010, 2:33 pm

Source: California and Californians, Vol. IV, Published 1932, Pages  93 - 94
Author: The Lewis Publishing Company

     GEORGE STERLING, San Francisco's poet laureate, was born in the old 
whaling town of Sag Harbor, Long Island, on December 1, 1869. His grandfather 
on his mother's side held a record as a harpooner and had killed more whales 
than any other living man. From him perhaps, George Sterling inherited the 
love of the sea that is expressed in so many of his poems.

     George Sterling admitted that in boyhood he displayed no special ambition 
except to have a good time. He was famous as the "bad boy" of his town, where 
he once raised a twelve by eight pirate flag on the steeple of the First 
Presbyterian Church. He attended the public schools of Sag Harbor and later 
studied for three years at St. Charles College, in Maryland. There Father 
Tabb, that gentle poet of the flowers and the spirit, was his English teacher. 
With him George Sterling took long, poetic walks and memorized the verses of 
the masters.

     He came to California in 1890, having been sent here to work for his 
uncle, F. C. Havens. For fifteen or sixteen years he served as his uncle's 
secretary, but during that time he was also writing poetry, that by  its 
exalted diction and the majestic rhythms won the admiration of poetry lovers 
everywhere. In 1892 he met Ambrose Bierce, who exerted a profound and 
inspiring influence over him.

     In 1903 he published his first book at his own expense, as he freely 
admitted. "It was an edition of 600 copies," he says. "I gave away 300 which 
stimulated a demand that sold the rest. Then A. M. Robertson brought out a 
second edition, which was completely destroyed by the fire, and later 
Robertson brought out a third. That's how I happen to have three editions of 
the book." The book was The Testimony of the Suns, one of the few poems in the 
English language that can truly be termed cosmic in thought, philosophy and 
diction. If George Sterling had written nothing else, The Testimony of the 
Suns would have insured his enduring fame and perhaps his immortality.

     In 1905, thinking that he could make a living writing poetry, he moved to 
Carmel, where he lived for nine happy years — not, however, by writing poetry. 
In leaving San Francisco, though, at that time, he missed the earthquake and 
fire, for which he was very sorry. He called it "the greatest spectacle in the 
history of the world," and of San Francisco, in one of his poems, "The Cool, 
Gray City of Love," he says: "I wouldn't live elsewhere. San Francisco is the 
only habitable city in the world the year round."

     In August, 1907, “The Wine of Wizardy,” that perfect “poet’s poem,” was 
published in the Cosmopolitan Magazine, startling the nation by its strange 
fantastic beauty. Later it appeared in book form to be followed by "The House 
of Orchids," "Beyond the Breakers" (which includes the great Browning 
ode, "The Caged Eagle"), "Ode to the Exposition," "Yosemite," "Sails and 
Mirage" and the dramatic poems "Lilith" and Rosamund." His Selected Poems, 
containing much of his finest work, was published by Holt.

     George Sterling, who died November 17, 1926, was distinctively the poet 
of California and of San Francisco. For twenty years his work has been 
recognized by the discriminating. He has been called, by no means 
extravagantly, the greatest living American poet. "His Wine of Wizardry," "The 
Testimony of the Suns," "Yosemite" and many of his sonnets and lyrics are 
poems of the noblest, loftiest kind. To younger poets he was friend and 
counselor, and no one was more truly appreciative of another poet's work. 
Perhaps one of the surest signs of his own poetic greatness was his charming 
unconsciousness of being great.—By Eric Howard.

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