“C” is for Coogler, John Gordon (1865-1901)

“C” is for Coogler, John Gordon (1865-1901). Poet. Coogler was born in Richland County near the town of Doko (now Blythewood) By the mid-1880s he was living in Colombia and printed at his own expense his first volume of poetry. Coogler and his poetry garnered attention of readers and reviewers from across the nation, who found his work entertaining, if not aesthetic. In 1897 Coogler published a one volume edition of his complete works, Purely Original Verse, which sold more than 5,000 copies. His couplet “Alas! For the South, her books have grown fewer—She never was given to literature” became a part of American folklore when repeated by national critics. John Gordon Coogler achieved notoriety in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as one of South Carolina’s and the South's, most famous and arguably worst poets.