The Abell Book of Art and Verse

The Abell Book of Art and Verse contains nearly two hundred of George Abell’s poems that offer a rare and entertaining look into the world of Washington politics at the beginning of the Cold War. George Abell (1898-1986) was a writer, journalist, and Assistant Chief of U.S. Protocol. After service in the US Navy during World War II, he worked with the civilian occupation government in Germany, and then for Time and Life magazines in Paris and New York. Returning to Washington, DC, he wound up his career serving as Assistant Chief of Protocol from 1962 to 1970.

Through his journalist’s perceptive eyes, he constructed richly detailed poems that exposed the behind-the-scenes posturing and, occasionally, cutthroat schemes of diplomats and luminaries to boost their country’s international prestige, and often their own. Although Abell never pursued a living writing poetry full-time, many newspapers printed his verse. Popular columnist Betty Beale of the Washington Evening Star frequently reprinted his shorter pieces, referring to him as the “Bard of O Street.” Many of his poems lay bare the ins-and-outs of diplomatic and political maneuvering, while others reflected his whimsical view of life. And Abell the poet had a flair for entertainment: he was always a leading candidate to receive an invitation to an A-list dinner party, where he might read a poem, sing a song, or—as he did at one party—emerge from a bathroom rolled up in toilet paper pretending to be Tutankhamun, the ancient Egyptian mummy that was then touring the US.

George Abell’s poetry echoes disciplined precision of meter, rhyming, and language. His more whimsical pieces are sometimes compared to his contemporary Ogden Nash. Both wrote light, funny, popular verse. The pieces collected here by his son, Tyler Abell, represent the first compilation and publication of George Abell’s work. Decades before Twitter, George Abell lay bare the dodges and peccadillos of the powerful and well-connected. Abell enjoyed reading his poems to amuse family and friends, and now for the first time we too can enjoy his unique commentary on how government, politics, and diplomacy played out on the world stage in mid-twentieth-century Washington.