Strangers to Us All Lawyers and Poetry

John Charles McNeill

(1874-1907)
North Carolina

frontispiece

John Charles McNeill, Songs, Merry and Said
(Charlotte, North Carolina: Stone & Barringer Co., 1906)

John McNeill studied at Whiteville Academy and held various jobs, including a teaching stint in Georgia, before he entered Wake Forest College in 1894. At Wake Forest, McNeill wrote poetry, edited a literary journal, obtained his bachelor's and masters degress, and studied law. He briefly served on the faculties at Wake Forest and Mercer University. At the age of twenty-six, McNeill opened a law office in Lumberton, North Carolina and acquired a proprietary interest in Argus, a weekly newspaper. He eventually moved to Laurinburg and was elected to the state legislature. His poetry was published in various national magazines.

[Source: John Charles McNeill letter, Duke University Library, Durham, North Carolina; Jack Claiborne, The Charlotte Observer: Its Time and Place 1869-1986 123-124 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986)]

John Charles McNeill

Poems

Poems by John Charles McNeill

Poetry

John Charles McNeill, Songs, Merry and Sad (Charlotte, North Carolina: Stone & Barringer Co., 1906) [online text] (Charlotte, North Carolina: Stone & Barringer Co. [Second edition][1908])(Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University Press, 1932)

_________________, Lyrics From Cotton Land (Charlotte, North Carolina: Stone & Barringer 1907)(Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1922) [online text]

__________________, Possums and Persimmons: Newly Collected Poems (Wendell, North Carolina: Broadfoot's Bookmark, 1977)(selected by Richard Walser)

__________________, The Pocket John Charles McNeill: Selected Poems (Laurinburg, North Carolina: St. Andrews Press, 1990)

Writings

John Charles McNeil, Some Fables (Wake Forest, North Carolina: The Editor, 1949)(Jasper L. Memory, Jr., ed.)

________________, Home in the Sandhills: Selected Prose (Laurinburg, North Carolina: St. Andrews College Press, 1997)(Dan Auman & Grace Evelyn Loving Gibson eds.)(originally published in 1936 by Jasper L. Memory, Jr. as Select Prose of John Charles McNeill)

Bibliography

Agatha Boyd Adams, John Charles McNeill, North Carolina Poet, 1874-1907: A Biographical Sketch (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Library, 1949)

Walter Spearman, North Carolina Writers (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1949)

Bibliography: Essays

"John Charles McNeill: Poet Laureate," in Robert C. Lawrence, Here in North Carolina (Lumberton, North Carolina: [Robert C. Lawrence], 1939)

Research Resources

John Charles McNeill Papers
Southern Historical Collection
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

John Charles McNeill Scrapbooks
Z. Smith Reynolds Library
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, North Carolina

The Complete Poems of John Charles McNeill appearing in the Charlotte Observer, 1903-1907
(compiled by Richard Gaither Walser)
Library, University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Richard Walser, North Carolina Poetry
(Richmond, Virginia: Garrett & Massie, 1951)(containing McNeil's poetry)