Born James Shields,[1] he changed his name to an anglicized spelling of its Irish version soon after high school.
[4] However, because he disagreed with Soviet foreign policy, many communist publications (such as New Masses) refused to publish his work.
As a member of the League of American Writers, O'Sheel served on its Keep America Out of War Committee in January 1940 during the period of the Hitler-Stalin pact.
[5] O'Sheel's published poetry collections include The Blossomy Bough (1912) and The Light Feet of Goats (1915).
[6] Louis Untermeyer characterized O'Sheel's poetry as possessing "mysticism and a muffled heroism".