SOURCE: An introduction in Selected Poems of William Vaughn Moody, edited by Robert Morss Lovett, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1931, pp. ix-xcii.

In the following essay, Lovett ranges over such biographical subjects as Moody's family background, education, teaching career, and travel, and offers a critical overview of his poetry.

I

William Vaughn Moody was born at Spencer, Indiana, July 8, 1869. His father, Francis Burdette Moody, with two brothers, Norman and Gideon, had moved from Central New York about 1852. Norman, a lawyer, settled in Illinois. Gideon, also trained for the law, went to South Dakota, whence he was sent to the United States Senate. Francis Burdette settled in New Albany, Indiana, where he married Henrietta Emily Stoy, of mingled English, French, and Scotch descent, a daughter of one of the earliest pioneer families of southern Indiana. For years Francis Moody commanded a steamer, in which he owned a half-interest, one of the...