Berton Braley

At 16, Braley quit high school and got a job working as a factory hand at a plow plant.

Shortly thereafter he discovered Tom Hood's poetry instructional book The Rhymester.

[1][2][3] Braley was first published at the age of 11 when a small publication printed a fairy tale he wrote.

[5] In 1917, John Philip Sousa composed a marching song for the University of Wisconsin, titled Wisconsin Forward Forever with lyrics by Berton Braley.

In 1934, Braley published the autobiographical Pegasus Pulls a Hack: Memoirs of a Modern Minstrel.