In 1908, Neihardt married Mona Martinsen, a sculptor who had trained with Rodin in Paris. She came to know Neihardt through his published poetry, and they conducted their courtship by mail, marrying the day after they met in person. They were married for 50 years, until Mona died in 1958, and had four children. In these early years, Neihardt published three more volumes of poetry: A Bundle of Myrrh (1907), Man-Song (1909), and The Stranger at the Gate (1912). Some of the poems in these volumes were collected as The Quest and published in 1916. He also wrote numerous short stories, some of which were collected in The Lonesome Trail (1907), two novels — The Dawn-Builder (1911) and Life's Lure (1914) — and four closet dramas (plays intended to be read rather than performed), two of which were later published as Two Mothers (1921). An account of a 2000-mile canoe trip on the Missouri River, published in serial form in 1909 and 1910, was published as The River and I in 1910. He wrote for Midwestern papers and for the New York Times (literary reviews). His early poetry was received respectfully; the influential editor Harriet Monroe even compared him to the radical American modernist poet, Ezra Pound. In the end, however, the quality of his early poetry was limited: It was highly romantic and even sentimental, the language often ornate and decorative. Some may argue that his location in the Midwest placed him outside the most significant literary community of his day, and that his art suffered from the lack of influence and support. Certainly, as a poet he was a minor figure compared with such young modernists as Robert Frost, for example, whose first collection of poetry was published in 1914.
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