McDonald Clarke (1798 - 1842)

McDonald Clarke

McDonald Clarke was an American outsider poet of the first half of the 19th century.

McDonald Clarke led an eccentric lifestyle and was nicknamed the Mad Poet of Broadway. He suffered periodic bouts of insanity, but was a regular on the New York poetry scene. Clarke was also known for sleeping in cemeteries and imitating Lord Byron. In his many poems, he covered topics ranging from social satire to sentimental romanticism.

Clarke was always virtually penniless and ended his life in a New York prison, where he was taken in another fit. The mad poet was immortalized by Walt Whitman, whom he greatly influenced as a mystical figure and outsider poet. The young Whitman was fascinated by both Clark's works and his eccentric life. Contemporaries describe Clarke as a mad child with aristocratic manners, meek and always happy, and all his oddities did no harm to those around him.