Bailey was a man of vigorous, direct, and driving personality... But he was also a man of aesthetic sensitivity—reflective, and considerate of his fellow man. The deeper qualities have appeared over the years in his poems and philosophical writings. The former were assembled and published in three different books, of which Wind and Weather (1916) is the most complete. Some reviewers have recognized in them a quality of Whitman, and others have compared them to writings by Thoreau; all have agreed that the best are among those eulogizing the beauties of na­ture. Bailey’s philosophical writings covered a wide range of topics; his best is acknowledged to be The Holy Earth, a book about man’s debt to the earth, and the earth’s goodness to man. It is Bailey’s account of his philosophy of life and his belief in God.

(Reprinted from BAILEYA, volume 3, pp. 26-40, March, 1955.)

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