POET

Ernest Lawrence Thayer (1863 - 1940)

BIOGRAPHY

Born into a wealthy family in New England, Ernest Lawrence Thayer (1863—1940) attended Harvard University where he met William Randolph Hearst. Years later when Hearst took over the San Francisco Examiner, he took Thayer with him. Thayer was a journalist but also contributed a ballad to the Sunday editions. One ballad, which became an American classic, was “Casey at the Bat.”