Frank Bernard Camp — Collected Poems

1882–after 1949

Frank Bernard Camp wrote from inside the rough institutions he described. As a sergeant on the Mexican border, he turned drills, injections, mess halls, forced marches, desert heat, homesickness, and barracks rumor into fast vernacular ballads; during the First World War he carried those poems from camp to camp in rousing public performances. His books then followed him north through Montana forests and into Alaska. Mexican Border Ballads resembles a decorated soldier’s souvenir, American Soldier Ballads expands the experience into comic and patriotic chronicle, Rhymes in Khaki turns toward memory, and Alaska Nuggets adopts the voices and legends of sourdough country. Camp can be funny, sentimental, boastful, self-mocking, and harsh within a few pages, while his nationalism bears the caricatures and coercive rhetoric of its era. Collected Poems restores 116 distinct works from these four remarkable books.

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Catalogue

Popular Verse & Performance

Associations

Borderlands and Spanish-Language California Self-Published California World War I and Its Aftermath

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Bibliography

Camp, F. B. Mexican Border Ballads: Written on the Border. F. B. Camp, 1916.

———. American Soldier Ballads. Geo. Rice & Sons, 1917.

———. Rhymes in Khaki. The Cornhill Company, 1918 [copyright deposit 1919].

———. War and Peace. Caxton Printers, 1932. 160 pages. LCCN 32011921; OCLC 17431805.

———. American Soldier Ballads in the Language of an Army Man. Consolidated Book Publishers, 1942. 160 pages. LCCN 42025417; OCLC 3495252.

———. Alaska Tales for the Cheechako. 1949. 74 pages. Later facsimile reprints reproduce the original edition.

Camp, Frank B. Alaska Nuggets. Alaska Publishing Company, 1921. A 1922 issue is also catalogued.

Works About the Author

“Alaskan History Magazine: Frank B. Camp.” Northern Light Media / Alaskan History Magazine, 24 Aug. 2026. Reprints four poems from Alaska Nuggets.

“Clever Poems by Local Author.” Cordova Daily Times (Cordova, Alaska), 7 Dec. 1921, p. 4. Library of Congress newspaper data and OCR.

“Frank Bernard Camp Catalogue and Digital-Witness Records.” Internet Archive, Open Library, Library of Congress, and HathiTrust.

Green, Khristina. Militarizing the Mexican Border. Doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan, 2021. A blocked download response is retained only as an invalid-download record; claims used here are independently supported elsewhere.

London, Lucy. “Frank Bernard Camp (1882–?)—American WW1 Soldier Poet.” Forgotten Poets of the First World War, 29 Oct. 2021.

“Soldier Poet” / camp-reading profile. Trench and Camp (Deming, New Mexico edition), 30 Oct. 1917. Account and excerpts preserved in Lucy London, “Frank Bernard Camp (1882–?)—American WW1 Soldier Poet,” Forgotten Poets of the First World War, 29 Oct. 2021.

“Soldier Poet” / United States Forestry report. Anniston Star, 24 June 1919. Account and excerpt preserved in the same Forgotten Poets research post.

University of North Texas Libraries. Catalogue record for American Soldier Ballads in the Language of an Army Man, including summary, contents, physical description, LCCN, and OCLC number.