Ina Donna Coolbrith (March 10, 1841 - February 29, 1928) was an American poet, writer, librarian, and a prominent and beloved figure in the San Francisco Bay Area literary community. She was the first California Poet Laureate and thus the first poet laureate of an American state.
Her poetry was written at a time when women were supposed to write either melancholic or uplifting poems, but Coolbrith surpassed this expectation by including a wide va...
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Ina Donna Coolbrith (March 10, 1841 - February 29, 1928) was an American poet, writer, librarian, and a prominent and beloved figure in the San Francisco Bay Area literary community. She was the first California Poet Laureate and thus the first poet laureate of an American state.
Her poetry was written at a time when women were supposed to write either melancholic or uplifting poems, but Coolbrith surpassed this expectation by including a wide variety of themes in her work. Her sensuous descriptions of natural scenes foreshadowed the Imagist school and the work of Robert Frost. Coolbrith broke new ground for women poets.
Ina Coolbrith was born Josephine Donna Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois, the last of three daughters of Agnes Moulton Coolbrith and Don Carlos Smith, brother to Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. Coolbrith's father died of malarial fever four months after her birth, and a sister died one month after that; Coolbrith's mother was then married to Joseph Smith, Jr., in 1842....
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