Collection RC0524 - William Force Stead collection

William Force Stead, poet and clergyman, was born 29 August 1884 in Washington, D.C. and educated at the University of Virginia. He went to England with the U.S. consular service, serving as Vice-Consul in Liverpool and Nottingham. He left the service to study at Queen's College, Oxford. He was ordained into the Church of England and appointed assistant chaplain of the Anglican church in Florence, Italy. He returned to England around 1926 and was elected a Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford. From 1927 to 1933 he served as college chaplain. In 1939 he returned to the United States where he became professor of English at Trinity College in Washington, D.C. He died on 8 March 1967 in Baltimore, Maryland. His best work of poetry is Uriel, A Hymn in Praise of Divine Immanence (1933). He was also a reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement. His academic scholarship involved the poet Christopher Smart (1722-1771). In 1939 Stead edited Rejoice in the Lamb: A Song from Bedlam by Christopher Smart.