Henry Mazyck Clarkson was my great-grandfather. He was born in 1835 in Charleston, SC; graduated from the University of SC in 1855 and from the medical school of the University of PA in 1859.
During the War between the States, he served as a surgeon with the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee. During the war, he married Jean Irwin Sayre of Alexandria. After the war, they settled in Haymarket, VA where he practiced medicine – and wrote poetry.
Evelyn was published in 1871, when he was 36 years old.
In 1885, When he was 50, his tenth and last child, a son named Lee Massey Clarkson was born. Lee Massey was my grandfather. He married a bit later in life, at 34 in 1919. In 1920, my mother, Elizabeth Lee Clarkson, was born. She died in 2008.
One of her prize posessions was a small volume of her grandfather, Henry Mazyck Clarkson’s poems. I have my mother’s copy, but was surprised to discover that it was not the first volume my great-grandfather had written. Just this year, I acquired a reprint of his first published poetry, from 1871.
Below is a video of me reading Part I of Evelyn: A Romance of the War between the States.
Evelyn, Part 1 from Rob Shearer on Vimeo.
Rob,
I have read this poem numerous times over the past 30 years or so. Your reading of this familiar poem brought me to tears. Your voice and flow presented it in a way that I have never been able to capture on my own. I thank you for this, and after so many years have pasted, I know that Henry is up in heaven smiling down on you.
I am truley greatfull for what you have done for all the Clarksons.
Ben Carkson