Francis Scott Key
Author
(1779 - 1843)
As a member of a prisoner exchange commission, attorney Francis Scott Key watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry, Baltimore during the War of 1812 from on-board the British warship HMS Tonnant. The poem he wrote about his experience became the American national anthem by Act of Congress in 1931.
Bibliography
The Star-Spangled Banner (1973)
Oh, say can you see, by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming.
Read online at archive.org.