William Wallace Harney:
(1832–1912).
American writer, poet, editor, and pioneer who played a significant role in promoting Central Florida during the late 19th century. Born in Bloomington, Indiana, to John Hopkins Harney, a mathematics professor, and Martha Wallace, he was named after his maternal uncle, the poet William Ross Wallace.
September―where fall and summer meet.
“September—where fall and summer meet” describes September as a ’transition month’:
– Early September often retains summer’s warmth and brightness.
– Later September brings cooler evenings, shorter days, changing leaves, and other signs of autumn.
– Figuratively, it can suggest a ’threshold between two phases’—an ending and a beginning existing together.
The saying is mainly ‘Northern Hemisphere–specific’; in the Southern Hemisphere, September marks the transition from winter to spring.
✍️ Origin and authorship:
The line is frequently attributed online to the American writer and poet Will Wallace Harney (1831–1912). However:
– No dependable ‘primary source’—a named poem, book, periodical, date, and page—has been established for this exact wording.
– Most appearances are on quotation websites, calendars, social-media graphics, and greeting-card pages that repeat the attribution without documentation.
– Its concise, caption-like form suggests that it may be a ‘modern anonymous saying or paraphrase’, rather than a verifiable nineteenth-century quotation.
Therefore, the safest attribution is:
> “September—where fall and summer meet.” — Anonymous
> Sometimes attributed to Will Wallace Harney, but the attribution is unverified.
📚 A likely literary parallel:
A similar, well-established thought appears in Helen Hunt Jackson’s poem “September”:
> “By all these lovely tokens
> September days are here,
> With summer’s best of weather,
> And autumn’s best of cheer.”
This may have helped inspire later formulations about September being the place where summer and autumn “meet,” although it is not the direct source of the exact sentence.
