James A. Bateman Papers

James Andy Bateman was born near Hazelhurst, Mississippi in 1912 during the Great Depression.[1] After graduation from high school in 1932, he worked during harvest season on vegetable and cotton farms in Mississippi and Tennessee. In between the harvests, he was hitchhiking and hoboing on the railroads.[2] He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1937 to 1957, and taught business at Florida State University and Albany Junior College (Georgia) from 1964 to 1974. After his retirement in 1974, he began to write poetry, seriously.

According to his son Joey Bateman, James Batemans’s father was a sharecropper. James joined the Marine Corp to earn enough money for his father to buy the farm that he farmed. Bateman was an expert on Robert Frost in his research and writings; and he also lectured all over the United States on Frost. He wrote poetry until his death from cancer.[3]

This collection includes manuscripts of poems by Bateman; non-poetry writings by Bateman; an unpublished manuscript by Bateman titled Dear Boss (1975); books of poetry by other authors; poetry journals; plus books and pamphlets by James and Doris Bateman.

After searching for information on his death, no information or obituary can be located for James Bateman. According to the online Copiah Monitor, his wife Doris Bateman died on January 7, 2011 and James Bateman had preceded in death before her.[4]