Nicholas Vachel Lindsay (November 10, 1879 - December 5, 1931) was a romantic American poet, novelist, performance artist, and early film critic - sometimes called the 'prairie troubadour.' He pioneered 'singing poetry,' writing verses meant to be chanted or sung with rhythmic gestures to connect with everyday audiences. Lindsay was born in Springfield, Illinois and grew up across the street from the Illinois Executive Mansion, and was steeped in civic and political life from a young age. Lindsay originally studied medicine at Hiram College in Ohio (his father was a doctor) but left to attend the Art Institute of Chicago and then the New York School of Art (now The New School). While in New York, Lindsay became increasingly focused on poetry, though he continued to draw and often produced illustrations relating to his poetry and writing. In the spring of 1906, Lindsay walked hundreds of miles through the eastern U.S., going town to town selling his self-published poetry or trading poems for food and lodging, the basis of his 'Prairie Troubadour' nickname. In 1912, he undertook a similar trek from Illinois to New Mexico. Rather than simply distributing his poems, Lindsay read them from a stage in a highly expressive, wild, exaggerated manner with lines sung rather than read, reflecting the influence of vaudeville performers and carnival barkers as much as other poets. Although little known today, Lindsay was among the best-known American poets of the 1910s and is credited with 'discovering' Langston Hughes. However, his personal and professional life deteriorated in the 1920s, with his 1920 The Golden Book of Springfield being a commercial and critical failure. His troubles were punctuated by the wider economic troubles following the 1929 stock market crash. Facing steep financial and health problems, Lindsay committed suicide in December 1931.
