Howard Austin

Howard Austin (July 27, 1886 – April 1, 1962) was an American poet, accountant, and improvisational performer. He was named the first poet laureate of Illinois in 1936.

Early life and career

Austin was born on his family's farm near Blue Mound, Macon County, Illinois in 1886. He was working in a bank in Taylorville when he was drafted into the 307th Field Artillery Regiment to fight in World War I. His wartime experience later provided material for some of his poems. After returning home, Austin found work in another bank in Pawnee, Illinois. He married a coworker, Violet May Arthur, in 1921. The couple were to have three sons and a daughter.

Austin spent most of his career working as an accountant. He worked in the Sangamon County clerk's office for a time; after losing an election for Circuit Clerk in 1940 he returned to the private sector. He worked for the Sangamon County Farm Bureau and later founded his own firm.

In the 1930s, the Pawnee Four performed at numerous events alongside Governor Henry Horner. At a Jackson Day event in Springfield in 1936, the quartet performed a song called "Be It Resolved" that largely praised the governor but also poked fun at his unmarried status, urging him to "pick out a handsome old maid and get himself a wife." The performance made such an impression on Horner that he declared his intention to make Austin Illinois's first poet laureate. He carried out this promise soon after, presenting Austin with the declaration on January 14, 1936.

Austin continued to write poems for performance, and as he grew older, increasingly, for private purposes or circulation within his family. Many of these private poems dealt with patriotic themes and drew on his wartime experience. Other themes included his family, current events, and religious reflection. According to his family, he typically wrote these poems in the same way that he wrote his verse for performance: impromptu and rarely edited.