William Stanley Beaumont Braithwaite(December 6,1878-June 8,1962)

The acclaimed poet and anthologist,was born in Boston.He was the second of five children born to William Smith Braithwaite and Emma Dewolfe Braithwaite.William Stanley father,originally from British Guiana,was a man of mixed racial heritage who had spent considerable time in England studying medicine,using the legacy left to him by a french grandmother.His mother.who almost passed for white,was the daughter of a mulatto slave who had come North in the years following the Civil War.While William Stanley's father was a live,the children were tutored at home in the usual subjects,as well as less common subjects such as French.Along with a superior education,William Stanley was also raised to consider only white children as his peers and to associate with the best and brightest among them whenever possible.These attitudes about race were inherited from his his father,but would have less influence over him as the years went by.In 1884,when William Stanley was seven,his father father died.This plunged the family into poverty.In order to avoid destitution,Emma began working as a domestic eventually began taking lodgers into the family home.By the age of 13,William quit school and began taking work as an errand boy in order to help support the family.After three yers of this work,he found similar work in a publishing house where his passion for books and writing began.It was this job that led him to his his life's work.He eventually became a a writer and was published in newspapers and other periodicals,as well as self-publishing his first book in 1904,titled Lyrics of Life and Love.His second book,House of Falling Leaves was published in 1908.His poetry was recognized in literary circles for much of his life.More imortantly was his work in compiling anthologies of work published in periodicals.These yearly anthologies helped launch the careers of many American poets.In 1918,William received the NAACP Spingarn Medal for outstanding achievements by an African American.He also received honorary degrees from Atlanta University and Talledega College in Alabama.Between the years of  1935 and 1945,William taught creative literature at Atlanta University.William fell ill and then died at his home in Harlem,leaving behind his wife and seven children.