Author, civil libertarian, soldier, and attorney. He is best known as the author of the 1927 bestseller, Heavenly Discourse.
He was present and documented the surrender of Chief Joseph, Nez Perce. They later became friends.
A reduced version of a note Sara wrote to Erskine, Charles' son after Charles death:
From "Two Room: The life of Charles Erskine Scott Wood
Written by: Robert Hamburger
We tried to do all we could as he would wish it. Did she (Becky) tell you of my almost direct message from him through a sonnet I had entirely forgotten? While I still ponder on whether, after all, he would want a grave where people could come to think about him or that "purification by fire" which he exalts in "The Poet in The Desert", I opened those sonnets which he had collected for your Mother and you children and was looking for a certain sonnet that eludes me and I thought was in that collection.
"At the very end of Personal Sonnets - the last one - was this:
If any for me would build a true bier
Bring my dumb ashes to a pleasant spot
And scatter them without despairing tear
About a young oak. So by time forgot
I shall be joyous in the strong oak's veins
And laugh from out his leaves to the blue sky,
Rejoice in summer sun and winter ecstasy
Than this world gives. And so the seasons pass.
Lovers I know will come to kiss their vows
And lie awhile upon the whispering grass.
And some who knew me may come here to give
A petal of the heart while yet they live.
"So, then, there was the final word. On his birthday with the family who are near enough to come and a few most close and intimate ones who made his life easier and happier by their devotion and whom he loves, we shall quietly, without formality and without tears, scatter the ashes around the great oak in the grove which is now like a mille fleur tapestry. Here, too, when I am gone, I ask that my ashes be strewn as a symbol of the unity which, in my belief, goes on unbroken.
He was present and documented the surrender of Chief Joseph, Nez Perce. They later became friends.
A reduced version of a note Sara wrote to Erskine, Charles' son after Charles death:
From "Two Room: The life of Charles Erskine Scott Wood
Written by: Robert Hamburger
We tried to do all we could as he would wish it. Did she (Becky) tell you of my almost direct message from him through a sonnet I had entirely forgotten? While I still ponder on whether, after all, he would want a grave where people could come to think about him or that "purification by fire" which he exalts in "The Poet in The Desert", I opened those sonnets which he had collected for your Mother and you children and was looking for a certain sonnet that eludes me and I thought was in that collection.
"At the very end of Personal Sonnets - the last one - was this:
If any for me would build a true bier
Bring my dumb ashes to a pleasant spot
And scatter them without despairing tear
About a young oak. So by time forgot
I shall be joyous in the strong oak's veins
And laugh from out his leaves to the blue sky,
Rejoice in summer sun and winter ecstasy
Than this world gives. And so the seasons pass.
Lovers I know will come to kiss their vows
And lie awhile upon the whispering grass.
And some who knew me may come here to give
A petal of the heart while yet they live.
"So, then, there was the final word. On his birthday with the family who are near enough to come and a few most close and intimate ones who made his life easier and happier by their devotion and whom he loves, we shall quietly, without formality and without tears, scatter the ashes around the great oak in the grove which is now like a mille fleur tapestry. Here, too, when I am gone, I ask that my ashes be strewn as a symbol of the unity which, in my belief, goes on unbroken.
Author, civil libertarian, soldier, and attorney. He is best known as the author of the 1927 bestseller, Heavenly Discourse.
He was present and documented the surrender of Chief Joseph, Nez Perce. They later became friends.
A reduced version of a note Sara wrote to Erskine, Charles' son after Charles death:
From "Two Room: The life of Charles Erskine Scott Wood
Written by: Robert Hamburger
We tried to do all we could as he would wish it. Did she (Becky) tell you of my almost direct message from him through a sonnet I had entirely forgotten? While I still ponder on whether, after all, he would want a grave where people could come to think about him or that "purification by fire" which he exalts in "The Poet in The Desert", I opened those sonnets which he had collected for your Mother and you children and was looking for a certain sonnet that eludes me and I thought was in that collection.
"At the very end of Personal Sonnets - the last one - was this:
If any for me would build a true bier
Bring my dumb ashes to a pleasant spot
And scatter them without despairing tear
About a young oak. So by time forgot
I shall be joyous in the strong oak's veins
And laugh from out his leaves to the blue sky,
Rejoice in summer sun and winter ecstasy
Than this world gives. And so the seasons pass.
Lovers I know will come to kiss their vows
And lie awhile upon the whispering grass.
And some who knew me may come here to give
A petal of the heart while yet they live.
"So, then, there was the final word. On his birthday with the family who are near enough to come and a few most close and intimate ones who made his life easier and happier by their devotion and whom he loves, we shall quietly, without formality and without tears, scatter the ashes around the great oak in the grove which is now like a mille fleur tapestry. Here, too, when I am gone, I ask that my ashes be strewn as a symbol of the unity which, in my belief, goes on unbroken.
He was present and documented the surrender of Chief Joseph, Nez Perce. They later became friends.
A reduced version of a note Sara wrote to Erskine, Charles' son after Charles death:
From "Two Room: The life of Charles Erskine Scott Wood
Written by: Robert Hamburger
We tried to do all we could as he would wish it. Did she (Becky) tell you of my almost direct message from him through a sonnet I had entirely forgotten? While I still ponder on whether, after all, he would want a grave where people could come to think about him or that "purification by fire" which he exalts in "The Poet in The Desert", I opened those sonnets which he had collected for your Mother and you children and was looking for a certain sonnet that eludes me and I thought was in that collection.
"At the very end of Personal Sonnets - the last one - was this:
If any for me would build a true bier
Bring my dumb ashes to a pleasant spot
And scatter them without despairing tear
About a young oak. So by time forgot
I shall be joyous in the strong oak's veins
And laugh from out his leaves to the blue sky,
Rejoice in summer sun and winter ecstasy
Than this world gives. And so the seasons pass.
Lovers I know will come to kiss their vows
And lie awhile upon the whispering grass.
And some who knew me may come here to give
A petal of the heart while yet they live.
"So, then, there was the final word. On his birthday with the family who are near enough to come and a few most close and intimate ones who made his life easier and happier by their devotion and whom he loves, we shall quietly, without formality and without tears, scatter the ashes around the great oak in the grove which is now like a mille fleur tapestry. Here, too, when I am gone, I ask that my ashes be strewn as a symbol of the unity which, in my belief, goes on unbroken.
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