Sudden Death
- On July 4, 1916, Seeger died in an attack when two enemy battalions attacked Belloy-En-Santerre (in Northern France), where he was shot in the stomach.
- After his death, the French military awarded him the Croix de Guerre ( awarded to soldiers who distinguish themselves with acts of heroism in combat with the enemy) and the Medaille Militaire (awarded to all ranks for acts of bravery in action against an enemy force).
- Seeger was buried in a mass grave.
Later Life
- Before joining the French Foreign Legion, Victor Chapman was suspect of Seeger’s emotional state before joining the Legion and wrote, “Seeger was an appalling wreck before the war.”
- The result of the war was of trivial interest to Seeger compared to the grandeur of comradeship and adventure.
Early Life
Middle Life
The Life of Alan Seeger
by Dr. Wilkinson
- Alan Seeger, the son of businessman Charles Louis Seeger, was born June 22, 1888, in New York City, and was raised in an affluent and intelligent home in Staten Island.
- He attended the Staten Island Academy and then the Horace Mann School in Manhattan until he turned twelve years old.
- His family then emigrated to Mexico City and in 1902, Alan returned with his brother to New York to attend the Hackley School.
- Upon graduation from the Hackley School, Seeger attended Harvard University and became a promising young poet.
- In Paris, Seeger made many friendships among the writers of the Latin Quarter. He found his ideals of beauty embodied in Paris and was very pleased by his choice to relocate.
- When the war broke out between France and Germany in 1914, Seeger enrolled in the French Foreign Legion to protect his beloved France.
- Seeger seemed to be attracted to the possibility of death and was stimulated by it. He is known today as a "fatalist", a supporter of a philosophical doctrine stressing the subjugation of all events or actions to fate:
- Fatalism refers to the view that we are powerless to do anything other than what we actually do.
Early Life Continued...
- He was inspired by the Romantic poets while many of his colleagues were studying more contemporary verse. He also wrote poems in the Harvard Monthly and loved putting his poetic works on display. Seeger graduated from Harvard with a BA in 1910.
- After his graduation, Seeger relocated to Greenwich Village in New York City where he continued writing poetry. He slept on the couch of his classmate, John Reed (famous American poet).
- In NY, he attempted to live a very bohemian lifestyle [having informal and unconventional social habits, especially an artist or writer]. Seeger's lack of a sustainable career and his sharp focus on writing upset his father.
- After two years of living in New York, Seeger decided to move to Paris to further pursue the world's beauty.