Centennial of the WWI combat death of American poet Joyce Kilmer

By Chris Isleib
Director of Public Affairs, United States World War One Centennial Commission

Beloved American poet Joyce Kilmer was killed 100 years ago on July 30, 1918, while fighting in France. Kilmer is best known for a poem entitled "Trees," published in a collection entitled Trees and Other Poems (1914). At the time of his death, Kilmer was considered to be one of the leading poets and lecturers of his generation.

Joyce Kilmer at Columbia University (left) and in uniform In France before his death.While a student at Columbia University, in New York, he was vice president of the Philolexian Society, was associate editor of Columbia Spectator, the campus newspaper, and was a member of the Debating Union. After graduating, he wrote book reviews for the New York Times, The Nation, and other publications and worked on the Funk & Wagnall's dictionary.

He married shortly after graduation and was the father of five children, one of whom had died shortly before he left for France.

Kilmer joined the Army soon after the U.S. declared war on Germany in April 1917, but he didn’t have to. At the age of 30 he was older than most, plus he was married with children. But he felt he needed to take part.

Kilmer was assigned to be a Sergeant with the Headquarters Company, 165th Infantry, a part of the U.S. Army's legendary 69th Division, from New York. This assignment suited him. Though he was eligible for commission as an officer -- and was often recommended for commission during the course of the war -- Kilmer refused, stating that he would rather be a sergeant in the Fighting 69th than an officer in any other regiment. As a famous poet and journalist, he also refused assignments that would have reduced his personal danger or given him an easier job in a rear area.

Before his departure overseas, Kilmer contracted with publishers to write a book about the war, deciding upon the title "Here and There with the Fighting Sixty-Ninth".

He never had a chance to write it. A sniper's bullet killed him on July 30, 1918, while he was leading a reconnaissance patrol during the Second Battle of the Marne, near Muercy Farm, beside the Oureq River near the village of Seringes, in France. He was thirty-one years old.

Sgt. Kilmer was buried at the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Memorial, about 70 miles northeast of Paris, alongside 6,011 other Americans. Kilmer was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre by the Government of France.

Kilmer's death at age 31 removed from him the opportunity to develop into a more mature poet. Critics compared Kilmer to British writers Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton—suggesting that his reputation might have risen to the level where he would have been considered their American counterpart if not for his untimely death.

Today, Kilmer's name and legacy are well-remembered in America's popular culture. Around the country, his name graces nine schools, over a dozen streets, the American Legion's Post 105 in New Jersey, a Catholic War Veterans Post, a prominent rest stop on the heavily-traveled New Jersey Turnpike, and a a National Forest in North Carolina,

Special thanks to Columbia University and to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. 

Joyce Kilmer's famous book of poetry (left) and hometown newspaper headlines of his death in battle. 

At the Joyce Kilmer National Forest outside of Asheville, NC, Veterans of Foreign Wars National Commander B.J. Lawrence (left) took some time to visit with three descendants of Army Sgt. Joyce Kilmer. From left are great-great-granddaughters Alex and Jennifer, and their mom (and Kilmer's great-granddaughter) Jennifer Matternes.