Wallace deGroot Cecil Rice (1859-1939) was an American author, lecturer, and poet from Chicago, Illinois.

Biography

Wallace Rice was born 10 Nov 1859, to John Asaph Rice (1829-ca1880) and Margaret Van Slyke (Culver) Rice (ca1829-1891) in Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...

, while his parents were temporarily residing in Canada. His father John Asaph Rice was a hotelier in Chicago and noted collector of Americana

Americana

Americana refers to artifacts, or a collection of artifacts, related to the history, geography, folklore and cultural heritage of the United States. Many kinds of material fall within the definition of Americana: paintings, prints and drawings; license plates or entire vehicles, household objects,...

. As a boy, he attended grammar school of Racine College

Racine College

Racine College was an Episcopal college in Racine, Wisconsin, founded in 1852. The collegiate department closed in 1887, but the college continued to be used as a grammar school and a military school until it closed in 1933....

. After graduating from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in 1883, Rice was admitted to the bar in in Chicago in November of 1884. He married Minnie (Hale) Angier on 8 August 1889 in Chicago, Illinois and they had two sons John and Benjamin. Rice was divorced from his wife Minnie prior to 1920 and he never remarried.

Rice was a newspaperman in Chicago writing for the Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

 and the Chicago Herald American and was a literary adviser and editor for several Chicago-based publishing houses. In 1917, he designed the Municipal Flag of Chicago

Municipal Flag of Chicago

The municipal flag of Chicago consists of two blue horizontal stripes on a field of white, each stripe one-sixth the height of the full flag, and placed slightly less than one-sixth of the way from the top or bottom, respectively. Between the two blue stripes are four red, six-pointed stars...

. He compiled a number of stories and anecdotes from newspapers around the country. One of his major anthology works was in collaboration with Clarence Darrow

Clarence Darrow

Clarence Seward Darrow was an American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union, best known for defending teenage thrill killers Leopold and Loeb in their trial for murdering 14-year-old Robert "Bobby" Franks and defending John T...

 in the editing of Infidels and Heretics published in 1929. He was also an accomplished author in his own right, writing historical pageants, including one celebrating Illinois' centennial and another for the semi-centennial of Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...

  He was also a poet and essayist. Rice died on 15 December 1939 in Chicago.

Selected publications

• Rice, W.deG.C. and B. Eastman. 1898. Under the Stars and Other Songs of the Sea. Way and Williams, Chicago. 61pp.
• Rice, W.deG.C. 1909. For the Gaiety of Nations. Fun and Philosophy from the American Newspaper Humorists. Dodge Publishing Company, New York. 60pp.
• Rice, W.deG.C. and F.V. Rice. 1909. The Wealth of Friendship. Brewer, Barse and Company, Chicago. 210pp.
• Rice, W.deG.C. and F.V. Rice. 1911. The Humbler Poets: A Collection of Newspaper and Periodical Verse 1885 to 1910. A.C. McClurg and Company, Chicago.
• Darrow, C.
  Clarence Darrow
  Clarence Seward Darrow was an American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union, best known for defending teenage thrill killers Leopold and Loeb in their trial for murdering 14-year-old Robert "Bobby" Franks and defending John T...
  
   and W.deG.C. Rice (eds.) 1929. Infidels and Heretics: An Agnostic's Anthology. Stratford & Company, Boston. 293pp.

Genealogy

Wallace deGroot Cecil Rice was a direct descendant of Edmund Rice

Edmund Rice (1638)

Edmund Rice , was an early immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony who was born in Suffolk, England, and lived in Stanstead, Suffolk and Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire prior to sailing with his family to America. He arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in summer or fall of 1638, presumed to be first...

 an early immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony

Massachusetts Bay Colony

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...

 as follows.

• Wallace deGroot Cecil Rice, son of
• John Asaph Rice (1829-ca1880)

• Anson Rice (1798 – ?), son of
• Asaph Rice (1768 – 1856), son of
• Amos Rice (1743 – 1827), son of
• Jacob Rice (1707 – 1788), son of

• Jacob Rice (1660 – 1746), son of
• Edward Rice (1622 – 1712), son of

• Edmund Rice
  Edmund Rice (1638)
  Edmund Rice , was an early immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony who was born in Suffolk, England, and lived in Stanstead, Suffolk and Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire prior to sailing with his family to America. He arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in summer or fall of 1638, presumed to be first...
  
   (1594 – 1663)

External links

• Wallace Rice Papers at Newberry Library
  Newberry Library
  The Newberry Library is a privately endowed, independent research library for the humanities and social sciences in Chicago, Illinois. Although it is private, non-circulating library, the Newberry Library is free and open to the public...