Early years and education: 1886–1908 Kilmer was born December 6, 1886, in
New Brunswick, New Jersey, the fourth and youngest child, of Annie Ellen Kilburn, a minor writer and composer, and
Frederick Barnett Kilmer, a physician and analytical chemist employed by the
Johnson and Johnson Company and inventor of the company's
baby powder. He was named Alfred Joyce Kilmer after two priests at
Christ Church in New Brunswick: Alfred R. Taylor, the curate; and Elisha Brooks Joyce, the rector. Christ Church is the oldest
Episcopal parish in New Brunswick and the Kilmer family were parishioners. Rector Joyce, who served the parish from 1883 to 1916, baptised the young Kilmer, who remained an Episcopalian until his 1913 conversion to Catholicism. Kilmer's birthplace in New Brunswick, where the Kilmer family lived from 1886 to 1892, is still standing and houses a small museum to Kilmer, as well as a few
Middlesex County government offices. Kilmer entered Rutgers College Grammar School (now
Rutgers Preparatory School) in 1895 at the age of 8. During his years at the Grammar School, Kilmer was editor-in-chief of the school's paper, the
Argo, and loved the classics but had difficulty with Greek. He won the first Lane Classical Prize, for oratory, and obtained a scholarship to Rutgers College which he would attend the following year. Despite his difficulties with Greek and mathematics, he stood at the head of his class in preparatory school. However, he was unable to complete the curriculum's rigorous mathematics requirement and was asked to repeat his sophomore year. Under pressure from his mother, Kilmer transferred to
Columbia University in New York City. The Kilmers had five children: Kenton Sinclair Kilmer (1909–1995); Rose Kilburn Kilmer (1912–1917); Deborah Clanton Kilmer (1914–1999), who became a nun ("Sister Michael") at the
Saint Benedict Monastery, St. Joseph, Minnesota; Michael Barry Kilmer (1916–1927); and Christopher Kilmer (1917–1984). When the Kilmers' daughter Rose (1912–1917) was stricken with
poliomyelitis (also known as infantile paralysis) shortly after birth, With the publication of
"Trees" in the magazine
Poetry in August 1913, Kilmer gained immense popularity as a poet across the United States. He had established himself as a successful lecturer—particularly one seeking to reach a Catholic audience. His close friend and editor Robert Holliday wrote that it "is not an unsupported assertion to say that he was in his time and place the laureate of the Catholic Church."
War years: 1917–1918 , United States Army, c. 1918 In April 1917, a few days after the United States entered
World War I, Kilmer enlisted in the Seventh Regiment of the
New York National Guard. In August, Kilmer was assigned as a statistician with the
165th Infantry Regiment (better known as the re-designated "Fighting 69th", the
69th New York Infantry Regiment), of the
42nd "Rainbow" Division, and quickly rose to the rank of
sergeant. Though he was eligible for commission as an officer and often recommended for such posts during the course of the war, Kilmer refused, stating that he would rather be a sergeant in the Fighting 69th than an officer in any other regiment. Kilmer did not write such a book; however, toward the end of the year, he did find time to write prose sketches and poetry. The most notable of his poems during this period was "
Rouge Bouquet" (1918) which commemorated the deaths of two dozen members of his regiment in a German artillery barrage on American trench positions in the
Rouge Bouquet forest north-east of the French village of
Baccarat. At the time, this was a relatively quiet sector of the front, but the first battalion was struck by a German
heavy artillery bombardment on the afternoon of March 7, 1918, that buried 21 men of the unit, killing 19 (of which 14 remained entombed). Kilmer sought more hazardous duty and was transferred to the
military intelligence section of his regiment, in April 1918. In a letter to his wife, Aline, he remarked: "Now I'm doing work I love – and work you may be proud of. None of the drudgery of soldiering, but a double share of glory and thrills." For his valor, Kilmer was posthumously awarded the
Croix de Guerre (War Cross) by the
French Republic. Kilmer was buried in the
Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Memorial, near Fere-en-Tardenois,
Aisne, Picardy, France just across the road and stream from the farm where he was killed. A
cenotaph erected to his memory is located on the Kilmer family plot in
Elmwood Cemetery, in
North Brunswick, New Jersey. A Memorial Mass was celebrated at
St. Patrick's Cathedral in
New York City on October 14, 1918. ==Works==