James Hearst

James Hearst, also known as the “Robert Frost of the Midwest,” was an Iowa farmer, internationally-known poet, and a distinguished professor at the University of Northern Iowa. Overall, Hearst published thirteen volumes of poetry and two autobiographical works that have won praise and honors at the national level, and gained attention abroad for his poetic mastery of the Midwest American speech and life in more than 600 published poems. 

Born and raised in Black Hawk County on his family farm, farming was always a part of his life, and it became the focus of his later poetry.

Hearst attended Campus High School, which was located on UNI’s campus in Sabin Hall. His mother was UNI’s first campus secretary, working alongside the president. 

He attended the Iowa State Teachers College, now UNI, for two years before enlisting in the Army during World War I.

On Memorial Day 1919, Hearst was swimming with friends in the Cedar River and dove into the river, hitting his head and fracturing his spine. This incident left him substantially paralyzed for the rest of his life. Hearst returned to the farm after his injury and began to write poetry about the land, people, and animals. 

He started his writing career by contributing to Wallace’s Farmer magazine, a Des Moines-based farm magazine, that grew out of combining other farm publications. His first piece was published in 1923 titled “Radio and the Farm Boy.”

According to a 1935 edition of “The College Eye,” an editor of “The Des Moines Register” said, “If James Hearst has ever written any bad poetry only Hearst’s waste-basket has seen it.”

Hearst started teaching creative writing at the Iowa State Teachers College in 1941, often holding classes in the basement of his nearby home. He taught until 1975, retiring as an Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of English. 

He had many achievements throughout his life. Hearst was granted an honorary doctor of letters degree in 1975, which was the first to be bestowed by UNI.

In 1981, the Cedar Arts Forum and UNI honored Hearst with a “Tribute to James Hearst” event. This event contained a musical performance based on one of his poems, “Blind with Rainbows” and a Readers Theatre adaptation of his poems from “Furrow and Gates.”

The following year, the Iowa Humanities Board funded a UNI Readers Theatre touring production of his poetry. Performances were held in Marshalltown, Waverly, Independence, Cedar Falls and Waterloo. Proceeds from the tribute were used to establish the James Hearst Scholarship Fund for students in the College of Arts and Humanities at UNI. 

After the death of James Hearst in 1983 and his wife Meryl  in 1987, their residence became property of the City of Cedar Falls as specified in their wills. After expansion and redesign, the house officially opened  as the James and Meryl Hearst Center for the Arts in May of 1989. Located just blocks from the UNI campus, The Hearst Center for the Arts continues to be lively today with ongoing and affordable opportunities for performing, creating and attending fine arts programs. 

In 2001, The Complete Poetry of James Hearst was published by the University of Iowa Press. More about James Hearst's writing and life is also available online at the James Hearst Digital Archive.