Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/503

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Valentine Brown was his own publisher and his own printer. He was the author of about a thousand pages of verse, all of which he put into type with his own hands. Although the first of his five books was not published until 1900, he is placed in the 19th century because his writing began back in the middle 80's. He was a poet entirely for his own enjoyment and he printed his books to give away to his many friends.

He was born in what is now the Irvington district of Portland on November 10, 1862. He had a newspaper route when he was 11 years old. Later he was flyboy on the Bee office press and printer's devil on the East Portland Vindicator. In 1877 he entered Bishop Scott Academy, remaining there for three years. For the succeeding three years he followed the seas, and then for four years was a railway mail clerk between Portland and Spokane. While on the mail run he made $20,000 trading in Portland eastside property, and increased this to $35,000 when he opened a real estate office of his own. He lost it all in the panic of 1893. He married Jennie Ham, the daughter of Isaac Ham, in 1889. After the panic and his loss he studied law, passed the bar examination, and spent the remainder of his life as an attorney and poet.