Bright, Verne

Verne Bright was born in 1893. He attended Pacific Lutheran University after serving in Siberia during WWI. During the Depression he was the supervisor of the professional and service divisions of the Works Progress Administration. During World War II he worked in the Portland shipyards, and after the war he worked as a newspaper reporter, freelance writer, and the assistant postmaster of Aloha, where he lived. He wrote over sixteen hundred poems that appeared in the North American Poetry Review, Saturday Evening Post, Poetry, London Poetry Review, New York Times, and The Oregonian. His work is featured in over fifty anthologies. In 1948 his book "Mountain Man" about Joseph Meek was published, earning him an honorary doctorate in letters from Pacific Lutheran University, where he taught for two years. From 1951 to 1953 he was the assistant curator of the Oregon Historical Society.