Richard Realf

Richard Realf (14 June 1832, Framfield, East Sussex, England – 28 October 1878, Oakland, California) was a poet who lived in many places throughout the United States, and whose work was informed by these travels.

Realf spent a year in Leicestershire, studying scientific agriculture with a relative of Lady Byron, Charles Noel and in 1854 came to the United States after a doomed love affair with Joel's young daughter Alice.

After arriving in the U.S., Realf explored the slums of New York City, became a Five Points missionary, and assisted in establishing there a course of cheap lectures and a self-improvement association.

After a failed attempt the previous evening, Realf killed himself by taking chloral hydrate and laudanum at the Windsor House in Oakland, California, on October 28, 1878.

He appointed as his literary executor Colonel Richard J. Hinton, who, after an initial gathering of the poet's scattered fragments performed by Ina Coolbrith, completed the collection of Realf's poems for publication, together with a biographical sketch, in 1888.