George Sterling is nearly forgotten today, but he seemed one of the nation's most promising poets in the years immediately preceding World War I. Although his work is no longer read, Sterling was praised extravagantly in his time by a large number of major authors; Ambrose Bierce, Jack London, Upton Sinclair, and Theodore Dreiser all declared him to be a great poet. These writers all knew Sterling so well that it was hard for them to be objective. Yet their opinions are an accurate reflection of the reputation Sterling once enjoyed in his home state of California. The changes in poetic taste that began in the years preceding World War I destroyed his hopes for national recognition, but he remained popular in San Francisco, where he maintained a sort of local supremacy until his death in 1926.

The qualities that account for Sterling's early successes are the same qualities...