Karle Wilson Baker - Nacogdoches, TX
Posted by: 
WalksfarTX
N 31° 36.495 W 094° 39.011
15R E 343461 N 3498196
Karle Wilson Baker (1878–1960) was an American poet and author, born in Little Rock, Ark.
Waymark Code: WMWFKZ
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 08/28/2017
Views: 5
A statue of woman seated on an armchair with a jacket thrown over the back. Her hair is up in a bun, she is wearing a dress with a collar. The dress has long sleeves and it reaches mid-calf. In her right hand is an old fashioned dip ink pen. In her left hand is an open book. Stacked beside the left side of her chair is four books. A small bird is sitting on the books.
The statue is on a brick platform, on the front is a bronze plaque with one of her poems on it.
wikipedia
Educated at the University of Chicago, she studied under poet William Vaughn Moody and novelist Robert Herrick, and later went on to write her own poems and novels.
In 1900, Baker first visited Nacogdoches, Texas to see her parents. Later, in 1906, she permanently moved from Little Rock, Arkansas, where she had been teaching school, to Nacogdoches. There, she fell in love with the beauty of the surrounding nature, which she would later describe in her book, The Birds of Tanglewood. At Nacogdoches, she also met her future husband, Thomas Ellis Baker, and the two married in 1907.
In addition to teaching at Stephen F. Austin University (1924–1934), she also gave lectures at various colleges, women's clubs, and literary groups in Texas. Later on in her life, she also attended University of Chicago, Columbia University, and University of California at Berkeley.
Soon known as one of Texas' most talented writers, Baker received the most recognition and honors of any female poet in Texas during the 20th century. As a charter member of the Institute of Letters, the Poetry Society of Texas, and the Philosophical Society of Texas, she was also the first female and third person to be named a Fellow of the Texas Institute of Letters. Her accomplishments included having had her first four books published by the Yale University Press, being awarded with an honorary Doctorate of Letters by the Southern Methodist University in 1924, and being nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her last collection of poetry Dreamers on Horseback in 1931. She was 82 years old when she died on November 8, 1960.