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A Heap o' Livin'
1916. A collection of verse from the poet and author of Making the House a Home.
- GenresPoetry
90 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1916
41 people are currently reading
117 people want to read
About the author
Edgar A. Guest
101 books54 followersThe family of Edgar Albert Guest settled in Detroit, Michigan, in 1891. When his father lost his job in 1893, eleven-year-old Edgar between working odd jobs after school. In 1895, the Detroit Free Press hired him as a copy boy, and he worked for the newspaper for almost sixty-five years. Death of the father compelled the seventeen-year-old poet to drop out high school and to work full time at the newspaper. From copy boy, he worked his way to a job in the news department. His first poem appeared on 11 December 1898. His weekly column, "Chaff," first appeared in 1904; his topical verses eventually became the daily "Breakfast Table Chat," which was syndicated to over three-hundred newspapers throughout the United States.
Guest married Nellie Crossman in 1906. The couple had three children. His brother Harry printed his first two books, Home Rhymes and Just Glad Things, in small editions. His verse quickly found an audience and the Chicago firm of Reilly and Britton began to publish his books at a rate of nearly one per year. His collections include Just Folks (1917), Over Here (1918), When Day Is Done (1921), The Passing Throng (1923), Harbor Lights of Home (1928), and Today and Tomorrow (1942).
From 1931 to 1942, Guest broadcast a weekly program on NBC radio. In 1951, "A Guest in Your Home" appeared on NBC TV. He published more than twenty volumes of poetry and was thought to have written over 11,000 poems. Guest has been called "the poet of the people." Most often, his poems were fourteen lines long and presented a deeply sentimental view of everyday life. He considered himself "a newspaper man who wrote verses." Of his poem he said, "I take simple everyday things that happen to me and I figure it happens to a lot of other people and I make simple rhymes out of them." His Collected Verse appeared in 1934 and went into at least eleven editions.
- See more at: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/...
Guest married Nellie Crossman in 1906. The couple had three children. His brother Harry printed his first two books, Home Rhymes and Just Glad Things, in small editions. His verse quickly found an audience and the Chicago firm of Reilly and Britton began to publish his books at a rate of nearly one per year. His collections include Just Folks (1917), Over Here (1918), When Day Is Done (1921), The Passing Throng (1923), Harbor Lights of Home (1928), and Today and Tomorrow (1942).
From 1931 to 1942, Guest broadcast a weekly program on NBC radio. In 1951, "A Guest in Your Home" appeared on NBC TV. He published more than twenty volumes of poetry and was thought to have written over 11,000 poems. Guest has been called "the poet of the people." Most often, his poems were fourteen lines long and presented a deeply sentimental view of everyday life. He considered himself "a newspaper man who wrote verses." Of his poem he said, "I take simple everyday things that happen to me and I figure it happens to a lot of other people and I make simple rhymes out of them." His Collected Verse appeared in 1934 and went into at least eleven editions.
- See more at: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/...
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
September 20, 2025
I loved them all. There wasn’t one bad poem in the lot. :)
July 2, 2019
This 1916 book could just have easily have been titled “A Heap o’ Preachin’” or “A Heap o’ Homilies,” given its content. But author Edgar A. Guest knew his audience, and wrote for them.
His readers from over 100 years ago expected the simple ka-thump ka-thump ka-thump rhythm patterns of the poems they may have read as children, and Guest delivered. They expected the simple rhyme patterns (such as ababcdcd or aabbccdd) of those same poems, and Guest used them.
They expected poems on the themes that resonated with them—honesty; integrity; humility; generosity; the values of hard work and work for its own sake; the joys of boyhood, manhood, and fatherhood; faith in a Creator and His ultimate plan; patriotism; bearing up without complaint in the face of life’s trials; and so on—and that’s what he wrote.
Women hardly figured in his poems, and when they did, they filled the traditional roles of wife, mother, housekeeper, and cook. They were forgetful and poor drivers and money managers. Today we’d call them stereotypes; at the time, that was the image both men and women often held of them.
Guest was, in other words, a man and poet of his times. (Interestingly, he did manage to sneak a couple poems into this book—“The Peaceful Warriors” and “Spring in the Trenches”—that feel like anti-war works.)
This approach worked for him. According to his Wikipedia biography (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_G...), his 11,000 poems were syndicated in some 300 newspapers and collected in over 20 books. He had his own radio and television shows between the 1930s and 1951.
Guest was no T. S. Eliot or Ezra Pound, and the “sophisticates” of his era looked down on him. Again according to Wikipedia, Dorothy Parker once sarcastically imitated his style, saying, “I’d rather flunk my Wassermann test than read a poem by Edgar Guest.” (The Wassermann test was the first test for syphilis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasserm...) Jean Stapleton as Edith Bunker recited some of his poems on All in the Family. British comedian Benny Hill parodied Guest’s poem “It Couldn’t Be Done.” Yet it was Guest’s popularity—something that Eliot, Pound, and Parker could never touch—that drew such criticism and mockery.
For what Guest meant his poems to be, and for the audience he intended them for, A Heap o’ Livin’ is a fine example of his work. Just don’t expect it to be “high art.”
His readers from over 100 years ago expected the simple ka-thump ka-thump ka-thump rhythm patterns of the poems they may have read as children, and Guest delivered. They expected the simple rhyme patterns (such as ababcdcd or aabbccdd) of those same poems, and Guest used them.
They expected poems on the themes that resonated with them—honesty; integrity; humility; generosity; the values of hard work and work for its own sake; the joys of boyhood, manhood, and fatherhood; faith in a Creator and His ultimate plan; patriotism; bearing up without complaint in the face of life’s trials; and so on—and that’s what he wrote.
Women hardly figured in his poems, and when they did, they filled the traditional roles of wife, mother, housekeeper, and cook. They were forgetful and poor drivers and money managers. Today we’d call them stereotypes; at the time, that was the image both men and women often held of them.
Guest was, in other words, a man and poet of his times. (Interestingly, he did manage to sneak a couple poems into this book—“The Peaceful Warriors” and “Spring in the Trenches”—that feel like anti-war works.)
This approach worked for him. According to his Wikipedia biography (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_G...), his 11,000 poems were syndicated in some 300 newspapers and collected in over 20 books. He had his own radio and television shows between the 1930s and 1951.
Guest was no T. S. Eliot or Ezra Pound, and the “sophisticates” of his era looked down on him. Again according to Wikipedia, Dorothy Parker once sarcastically imitated his style, saying, “I’d rather flunk my Wassermann test than read a poem by Edgar Guest.” (The Wassermann test was the first test for syphilis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasserm...) Jean Stapleton as Edith Bunker recited some of his poems on All in the Family. British comedian Benny Hill parodied Guest’s poem “It Couldn’t Be Done.” Yet it was Guest’s popularity—something that Eliot, Pound, and Parker could never touch—that drew such criticism and mockery.
For what Guest meant his poems to be, and for the audience he intended them for, A Heap o’ Livin’ is a fine example of his work. Just don’t expect it to be “high art.”
November 4, 2014
I memorized some poems of Edgar A. Guest as a youth. Here are a couple of them that are in this book. I got the book as a free Kindle download from Amazon.
BE A FRIEND
Be a friend. You don't need money;
Just a disposition sunny;
Just the wish to help another
Get along some way or other;
Just a kindly hand extended
Out to one who's unbefriended;
Just the will to give or lend,
This will make you someone's friend.
Be a friend. You don't need glory.
Friendship is a simple story.
Pass by trifling errors blindly,
Gaze on honest effort kindly,
Cheer the youth who's bravely trying,
Pity him who's sadly sighing;
Just a little labor spend
On the duties of a friend.
Be a friend. The pay is bigger
(Though not written by a figure)
Than is earned by people clever
In what's merely self-endeavor.
You'll have friends instead of neighbors
For the profits of your labors;
You'll be richer in the end
Than a prince, if you're a friend.
UNDER THE SKIN OF MEN
Did you ever sit down and talk with men
In a serious sort of a way,
On their views of life and ponder then
On all that they have to say?
If not, you should in some quiet hour;
It's a glorious thing to do:
For you'll find that back of the pomp and power
Most men have a goal in view.
They'll tell you then that their aim is not
The clink of the yellow gold;
That not in the worldly things they've got
Would they have their stories told.
They'll say the joys that they treasure most
Are their good friends, tried and true,
And an honest name for their own to boast
And peace when the day is through.
I've talked with men and I think I know
What's under the toughened skin.
I've seen their eyes grow bright and glow
With the fire that burns within.
And back of the gold and back of the fame
And back of the selfish strife,
In most men's breasts you'll find the flame
Of the nobler things of life.
November 22, 2013
I have the 1916 version of this book and it is one of my most treasured possessions. Truly a must read. His poems are so cleaver, upbeat, and inspiring!
May 10, 2017
This charming author captures some of the sweetest moments of living we experience! I love his candid writing style - he really awakes the happy pieces of my heart!
August 9, 2025
Objectively, this collection isn’t that great, but I love it anyways.
The reason why I said objectively it isn’t that great, is because it felt very repetitive. Sometimes I felt like I was reading the exact same poem about boyhood 35 times. I guess that’s what Guest really cared about. Very easy to read, actually, probably one of the easiest poetry collections to read ever. Guest’s poems usually feel like they’re written for children though. There is literally a poem called, “Be a Friend.” And it’s about how you should be friendly with people. Not very deep, yet, I love it loved it
A very feel good collection of poems, there weren’t many of them that got that deep. Here are a few of my favorites though:
The Gentle Gardener
At Breakfast Time
Ladies
Spring in the Trenches
Life
What a Baby Costs
To-Morrow
It’s September
No Place to Go
The gentle gardener, especially, is an amazing poem. Definitely be looking out for that one.
For the title sake, home, or a heap o livin, I thought that was OK. I really don’t know why Guest chose that poem to be the title, but he did.
If you want a poetry collection to read when you’re tired as hell after work, and you wanna feel like a child, read this. That might sound like an insult to this book, but it’s not.
The reason why I said objectively it isn’t that great, is because it felt very repetitive. Sometimes I felt like I was reading the exact same poem about boyhood 35 times. I guess that’s what Guest really cared about. Very easy to read, actually, probably one of the easiest poetry collections to read ever. Guest’s poems usually feel like they’re written for children though. There is literally a poem called, “Be a Friend.” And it’s about how you should be friendly with people. Not very deep, yet, I love it loved it
A very feel good collection of poems, there weren’t many of them that got that deep. Here are a few of my favorites though:
The Gentle Gardener
At Breakfast Time
Ladies
Spring in the Trenches
Life
What a Baby Costs
To-Morrow
It’s September
No Place to Go
The gentle gardener, especially, is an amazing poem. Definitely be looking out for that one.
For the title sake, home, or a heap o livin, I thought that was OK. I really don’t know why Guest chose that poem to be the title, but he did.
If you want a poetry collection to read when you’re tired as hell after work, and you wanna feel like a child, read this. That might sound like an insult to this book, but it’s not.
October 30, 2023
This book of poems heavily embraces the themes of working hard for your family, and loving them when you come home. For a piece from the early 1900s it is surprisingly unproblematic (with but one humorous poem about a woman who can't drive). It feels very old fashioned in the way a Norman Rockwell Christmas would. Very cozy to read.
There's also a lot of patriotic / soldier themed ones about loving your country and duty to it. This is to be expected of a book a hundred years old.
There's also a lot of patriotic / soldier themed ones about loving your country and duty to it. This is to be expected of a book a hundred years old.
March 30, 2021
This has some amazingly uplifting poems in it. I'm not much of a fan of poetry, but Guest has convinced me I'm missing out. Some of these are such happy little reminders of why life is actually quite good.
Full review to come
Full review to come
July 12, 2020
Recommended to me by my father, as a view of everyday life and everyday joys.
August 3, 2020
I read this book of poetry to complete a square on my summer reading challenge. These poems center on hard work, honest living, and wholesome family life.
October 30, 2024
By no means sophisticated, I found the simplicity of these poems that much more powerful.
They were simple and happy and a joy to read.
They were simple and happy and a joy to read.
February 6, 2025
Reading Guest is like hearing my Grandad tell me he loves me.
February 12, 2025
It's an old book with old style writing, but it's themes and thoughts are timeless. Worth reading.
June 25, 2025
Review coming soon! :)
July 4, 2009
I came across a very old copy (c. 1916) of this book recently while cleaning out an old barn in Vermont. What a find.
EG's style might seem dated to some - his poems rhyme; but what he says is so simple/profound and takes no deciphering to know what his point is. Lessons for daily living.
...'Tis better to have fought and spent,
Your courage, missing all applause,
than to have lived in smug content
And never ventured for a cause, ...
EG's style might seem dated to some - his poems rhyme; but what he says is so simple/profound and takes no deciphering to know what his point is. Lessons for daily living.
...'Tis better to have fought and spent,
Your courage, missing all applause,
than to have lived in smug content
And never ventured for a cause, ...
February 25, 2013
I usually save 5 for Miltonish type poetry but this should be a 4.5 - but I love Edgar Guest Poetry and this book is great. He has the kind of poetry you want to write to a friend in a card because it's just what you were thinking but never thought to say it that way. I am working on another little anthology of his poetry, too. Lovely, truly. I'd list my favs, but I keep it in the car for waits of any kind.
March 11, 2010
I love Guest and most any poet or lover of poetry will as well.
January 13, 2011
Again, I just love the poetry of Edgar Guest.
September 21, 2014
I love Edgar Guest's poetry and reread it every now and then.
January 3, 2015
Print is too small.
The book does not navigate well and the print is too small. On the positive side, I really like this author's poems.
The book does not navigate well and the print is too small. On the positive side, I really like this author's poems.
September 21, 2016
I have the 1916 version of this book. Some great poetry.
June 28, 2023
Love this book, always have. I've read it many times over the years.
April 3, 2017
Guest's style is simple and often called outdated, with no profound or complicated themes or ideas. But his poems are so enjoyable and timeless. 1916, and he's writing about backseat drivers, and overspending spouses, and most importantly, the love and affection of a parent and child. It gives such a familiar and humorous look into the lives of people over a hundred years ago.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews