About the Editor  close window

Samuel Norfleet Etheredge started his lifetime love affair with poetry when he was child growing up on the beach in Virginia. He was born in Norfolk, Virginia on January 31, 1914. Sam started a paper route at the age of 5 and continued it for 14 years to help his family with expenses and pay for college at Old Dominion. And it was during these days he started reading and memorizing poems that he would remember all his life. He attended Medical School at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, graduating in 1937. After medical training in Virginia, Washington and West Virginia, he served in the US Navy and Marine Corps during World War II in the South Pacific. He participated in D-Day landings on Bougainville and Guam and won the Bronze Star for bravery. He recounted his experiences in the war in several poems. After the war ended, he settled down in the San Francisco Bay Area. He and his wife raised a family of four children, while he practiced vascular surgery and served as President of several surgical societies. He retired from full-time surgical practice in 1989 and devotes his time now to gardening, golf, bridge and reading. He still resides in the Bay Area and hopes this book of poetry will inspire his children and ten grand-children. Sam’s love of rhyme and rhythm is reflected in his choice of poems included in this anthology. They are poems that inspire, entertain and teach—and are fun to read out loud, memorize and read to your children. The reflect the editor’s strong love of nation, nature, honesty and integrity. The poems are organized by themes that reflect the phases a lifetime – youth, good advice, humor, love, bravery and looking back over your life. He has annotated the poems to provide insight and knowledge. The editor dedicated the book to the youth of America in the hopes it will capture their interest and provide great reading enjoyment.