Ina Coolbrith - Mission Hills, CA - Dead Poets' Society Memorials on Waymarking.com

The Museum at Mission San Fernando displays this memorial to four Poet Laureates of California including Ina Coolbrith which it depicts and informs us:

"INA COOLBRITH (Josephine Danns Smith)
born March 10, 1841, Springfield, Illinois.
Librarian, Oakland and San Francisco 1873-1906.
one of principal works, SONGS OF THE GOLDEN
WEST, 1895. Recognized and given honorary
title THE LOVED LAUREL CROWNED POET OF
CALIFORNIA, APRIL 21, 1919, and held title until
her death February 29, 1928.
-California Statutes (1919)"

Wikipedia (visit link) adds:

"Ina Donna Coolbrith (March 10, 1841 – February 29, 1928) was an American poet, writer, librarian, and a prominent figure in the San Francisco Bay Area literary community. Called the "Sweet Singer of California", she was the first California Poet Laureate and the first poet laureate of any American state.

Coolbrith, born the niece of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints founder Joseph Smith, left the Mormon community as a child to enter her teens in Los Angeles, California, where she began to publish poetry. She terminated a youthful failed marriage to make her home in San Francisco, and met writers Bret Harte and Charles Warren Stoddard with whom she formed the "Golden Gate Trinity" closely associated with the literary journal Overland Monthly. Her poetry received positive notice from critics and established poets such as Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce and Alfred Lord Tennyson. She held literary salons at her home—in this way she introduced new writers to publishers. Coolbrith befriended the poet Joaquin Miller and helped him gain global fame."

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Date Logged Log User Rating   05/31/2015 Metro2 visited it