Coolbrith, Ina Donna (1841–1928)
Coolbrith, Ina Donna (1841–1928)
American poet. Name variations: began using her mother's maiden name Coolbrith in 1862. Born Josephine Donna Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois, on March 10, 1841; died in Berkeley, California, on February 29, 1928; niece of Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism; attended school in Los Angeles; married Robert B. Carsley, in 1858 (divorced 1861).
Shortly after her birth, Ida Coolbrith's widowed mother took her children to live in St. Louis; about ten years later, the family continued on to California by wagon train. (Coolbrith was the first white child to cross the Beckwourth Pass through the Sierra Nevada.) After attending school in Los Angeles, marrying, and quickly divorcing, Coolbrith moved to San Francisco in 1862 where she taught school, continued to write, and joined the bay area's literary circle. Associated with Bret Harte in editing the Overland Monthly (1868), Ina Coolbrith also worked as a librarian for the Oakland Public Library (1873–1906) and was named poet laureate of California (1915). Her poetry collections included The Perfect Day and Other Poems (1881) and Songs of the Golden Gate.