Ina Coolbrith was born in 1841 in Nauvoo, Illinois, to Mormon parents. Moving with her family to California in 1851, she began to publish poetry five years later. One of the so-called “Golden State Trinity” of poets (with Bret Harte and Charles Warren Stoddard), she was a prominent contributor in the late 1860s and 1870s to the Overland Monthly. By the late 1870s, she had earned a national reputation, and her verse appeared regularly in such magazines as Galaxy, Putnam's, Scribner's, and Harper's Weekly. As Librarian of the Oakland Free Public Library between 1874 and 1893, she met and mentored the young Isadora Duncan, Jack London, and Mary Austin, and in her salon she met and encouraged Charlotte Perkin

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First published 17 March 2001

Citation: Scharnhorst, Gary. "Ina Coolbrith". The Literary Encyclopedia. 17 March 2001.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1004, accessed 9 February 2010.]