| Joseph Seamon Cotter Jr. | |
| Birthname: | Joseph Seamon Cotter Jr. |
| Birth Date: | 2 September 1895 |
| Birth Place: | Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Education: | Central High School |
| Parents: | Joseph Seamon Cotter Sr. (father) |
Joseph Seamon Cotter Jr. (September 2, 1895 – February 3, 1919) was an American playwright, writer, and poet from Louisville, Kentucky most remembered for his posthumously published one-act play On The Fields of France in addition to numerous volumes of poetry.[1]
Cotter was born and lived the formative years of his life in Louisville, Kentucky, where he attended Central High School until his graduation in 1911. His father, Joseph Seamon Cotter Sr., a noted African-American playwright in his own regard, was the principal when Cotter graduated.[2]
Cotter subsequently attended Fisk University in Nashville, TN, before contracting tuberculosis, a disease that claimed the life of his sister, Florence Olivia, in 1914.[3]
After falling ill, Cotter returned to Louisville and began work as a journalist for the Leader. Cotter avoided mimicking the style of his father and instead "experimented with free and, in Rain Music, rhythmic styles." His father was instrumental in promoting his son's work after his death in 1919 from tuberculosis.[4] He was said by many to have had the potential to be the greatest poet of his generation.[5]