When The Song of the Messiah was published in 1935, expectations again ran high for a Pulitzer, which — again — Neihardt did not receive. He returned to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from 1936 to 1938, and began a long term as associate editor of the Mark Twain Quarterly with its inaugural issue in 1936. A Cycle of the West was finally published in its entirety in 1941. From 1944 to 1946, Neihardt served as Director of Information for the Office of Indian Affairs and continued to work for the organization in a more limited capacity until 1948. From 1949 to 1961, he was the Poet in Residence and Lecturer in English literature at the University of Missouri at Concordia, where he remained a popular instructor. Neihardt's position at the University of Missouri, which he accepted at the age of 68, was his first secure job; he had made a living until that point by patching together pieces of work-for-hire, temporary editing stints, and the poetry to which he was devoted.
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