Walter Beckman Pedersen (1906-1959) was born in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from New York University in 1930 and from Harvard Divinity School in 1933. He married Rebecca Pickering Fitzgerald in June 1933, and was ordained as a Unitarian minister in September 1933 in Lebanon, New Hampshire. He served pastorates in Lebanon, New Hampshire, 1933-1936; Meadeville, Pennsylvania, 1936-1942; Cohasset, Massachusetts, 1942-1945; and Birmingham, Michigan, 1958-1959. He toured with the Red Cross from 1945 to 1946, served as an education officer in the military government of Japan from 1946 to 1951, and was head of the Westchester and Cleveland Ethical Societies from 1952 to 1954 and 1954 to 1958, respectively. In addition to being a minister, Pedersen wrote poetry, and this collection contains some of his poems.
From the guide to the Pedersen, Walter Beckman. Papers, 1912-1959., (Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard Divinity School)
