{{Short description|American writer (1872–1943)}} {{Infobox person | name = Cale Young Rice | image = Portrait of Cale Young Rice.jpg | caption = Portrait of Cale Young Rice | birth_date = {{birth date|1872|12|07}} | birth_place = Dixon, Kentucky, US | death_date = {{death date and age|1943|01|24|1872|12|07}} | death_place = Louisville, Kentucky, US | occupation = poet and dramatist | spouse = Alice Hegan Rice | children = }} '''Cale Young Rice''' (December 7, 1872 – January 24, 1943) was an American poet and dramatist. He was professor of English at Cumberland University. His opera, ''Yolanda of Cyprus,'' was widely received.
==Life and career== Rice was born in Dixon, Kentucky, to Laban Marchbanks Rice, a Confederate veteran and tobacco merchant, and his wife Martha Lacy. He was a younger brother of Laban Lacy Rice, a noted educator, author, and president of Cumberland University. Cale Rice grew up in Evansville, Indiana, and Louisville, Kentucky. He was educated at Cumberland University where he was a member of the Theta chapter of Kappa Sigma fraternity and at Harvard (A.B., 1895; A.M., 1896).<ref name="Obituary"/>
On December 18, 1902, Rice was married to the popular author Alice Hegan Rice; they worked together on several books. The marriage was childless. In 1910, they built a house at 1444 St. James Court, where they lived for 40 years.<ref name="Harrison">{{cite book|last1=Harrison|first1=Lowell H.|last2=Klotter|first2=James C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=63GqvIN3l3wC&q=Cale%20Young%20Rice |title=A new history of Kentucky |date=1997 |page=324|publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=9780813120089 |access-date=2022-07-01}}</ref><ref name="Kleber">{{cite book|last1=Kleber|first1=John E.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8eFSK4o--M0C&q=Cale%20Young%20Rice |title=The Kentucky Encyclopedia|date=1992|publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=0813128838 |access-date=2022-07-02}}</ref>
Cale Rice's poems were collected and published in a single volume, ''The best poetic work of Cale Young Rice,'' by his brother, Laban Lacy Rice (1870–1973).<ref>{{cite book|first1=Laban Lacy |last1=Rice |title=The best poetic work of Cale Young Rice.|place= Lebanon, Tenn.|publisher=Cumberland University Press|date=1943|oclc=2665467 }}</ref>
His birthplace in Dixon is designated by Kentucky State Historical Marker 1508, which reads:
{{blockquote|Birthplace of Rice brothers, Cale Young, 1872–1943, noted poet and author; Laban Lacy, 1870–1973, well-known educator and author. Lacy published The Best Poetic Works of Cale Young Rice after Cale's death. Included in famous collection is poem, "The Mystic." Cale married Alice Hegan, also a distinguished Kentucky writer. Home overlooks Memorial Garden.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/browse?search=Historical+Marker+%231508+&sort_field=relevance&submit_header-search=Submit|title=Search For Markers|accessdate=1 July 2022|work=explorekyhistory.ky.gov}}</ref>}}
Rice adapted his play ''Yolanda of Cyprus'' into an opera libretto for Clarence Loomis; the resulting work was premiered on September 25, 1929, in London, Ontario, under the baton of Isaac Van Grove, and featured Charles Kullman. The production was directed by Vladimir Rosing.<ref name="GriffelBlock1999">{{cite book|author1=Margaret Ross Griffel|author2=Adrienne Fried Block|title=Operas in English: A Dictionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WxIKAQAAMAAJ|year=1999|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=978-0-313-25310-2|author1-link=Margaret Ross Griffel}}</ref> The opera later received the Bispham Memorial Medal Award.<ref name="Wlaschin2006">{{cite book|author=Ken Wlaschin|title=Encyclopedia of American Opera|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SBkKAQAAMAAJ|year=2006|publisher=McFarland & Company|isbn=978-0-7864-2109-1}}</ref>
==Death== Rice committed suicide by gunshot during the night of January 24, 1943, at his home in Louisville a year after his wife's death due to his sorrow at losing her.<ref name="Harrison"/><ref name="Obituary">{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/104777955/obituary/ |title=Cale Y. Rice Is Found Dead|work=Messenger-Inquirer|place=Owensboro, Kentucky|date=25 Jan 1943|page=1|accessdate=2022-07-01}}</ref>
==Works==
===Verse=== * ''From Dusk to Dusk'' (1898) * ''With Omar'' (1900) * ''Song Surf'' (1900) * ''Nirvana Days'' (1908) * ''Many Gods'' (1910) * ''At the World's Heart'' (1914)
===Plays=== * ''Charles di Tocca'' (1903) * ''Yolanda of Cyprus'' (1906)<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/104777268/plays-and-lyrics/ |title=PLAYS AND LYRICS. The Collected Poems of Cale Young Rice--His Tragedies "Yolanda of Cyprus" and "David."|date=August 11, 1906|work=The New York Times|place=New York, New York|page=17|accessdate=2022-07-01}}</ref> * ''A Night in Avignon'' (1907) * ''The Immortal Lure'' (1911) * ''Porzia'' (1913)
===Collection=== * ''Collected Plays and Poems'' (two volumes, 1915)
===Other works=== * ''Youth's Way.'' New York, The Century Co., 1923. * ''A New Approach to Philosophy.'' Lebanon, Tenn: The Cumberland University Press, 1943.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{commons category}} * {{Gutenberg author | id=34439| name=Cale Young Rice}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Cale Young Rice}} * {{Librivox author |id=1645}} * {{Find a Grave|18083751}} * [http://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt798s4jmh56/ Guide to the Cale Young Rice papers, 1927–1939] housed at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center * [http://www.rootsweb.com/~kywebste/families/rice.htm Rice family page] * [http://www.webstercountyky.com/index.php Rice family home on Dixon, KY site]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rice, Cale Young}} Category:1872 births Category:1943 suicides Category:1943 deaths Category:American male poets Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Writers from Louisville, Kentucky Category:People from Webster County, Kentucky Category:Writers from Evansville, Indiana Category:Suicides by firearm in Kentucky Category:Cumberland University alumni Category:American male dramatists and playwrights Category:19th-century American poets Category:20th-century American poets Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights Category:Poets from Kentucky Category:Poets from Indiana Category:19th-century American dramatists and playwrights Category:19th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American male writers Category:Dramatists and playwrights from Kentucky