Nicholas Vachel Lindsay--Vachel rimes with Rachel--was born at Springfield, Illinois--which rimes with boy--on the tenth of November, 1879. His pen name omits the Nicholas. For three years he was a student at Hiram College in Ohio, and for five years an art student, first at Chicago, and then at New York. This brings us to the year 1905. From that year until 1910 he drew strange pictures, lectured on various subjects, and wrote defiant and peculiar "bulletins." At the same time he became a tramp, making long pilgrimages afoot in 1906 through Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and in 1908 he invaded in a like manner some of the Northern and Eastern States. These wanderings are described with vigour, vivacity, and contagious good humour in his book called _A Handy Guide for Beggars_. His wallet contained nothing but printed leaflets--his poems--which he exchanged for bed and board. He was the Evangelist of Beauty, preaching his gospel everywhere by reciting his verses. In the summer of 1912 he walked from Illinois to New Mexico. To understand his development, one should read his books not according to the dates of formal publication, but in the following order: _A Handy Guide for Beggars_, _Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty_, _The Art of the Moving Picture_--these three being mainly in prose. Then one is ready for the three volumes of poetry, _General William Booth Enters into Heaven_ (1913), _The Congo_ (1914), and _The Chinese Nightingale_ (1917). Another prose work is well under way, _The Golden Book of Springfield_, concerning which Mr. Lindsay tells me, "The actual Golden Book is a secular testament about Springfield, to be given to the city in 2018, from a mysterious source. My volume is a hypothetical forecast of the times of 2018, as well as of the Golden Book. Frankly the Lindsay the reviewers know came nearer to existing twelve years ago than today, my manuscripts are so far behind my notes. And a thing that has helped in this is that through changing publishers, etc., my first prose book is called my latest. If you want my ideas in order, assume the writer of the _Handy Guide for Beggars_ is just out of college, of _Adventures While Preaching_ beginning in the thirties, and _the Art of the Moving Picture_ half-way through the thirties. The Moving Picture book in the last half embodies my main social ideas of two years ago. In mood and method, you will find _The Golden Book of Springfield_ a direct descendant of the general social and religious philosophy which I crowded into the photoplay book whether it belonged there or not. I hope you will do me the favour and honour to set my work in this order in your mind, for many of my small public still think _A Handy Guide for Beggars_ the keynote of my present work. But it was really my first wild dash." The above letter was written 8 August, 1917.