A Poet Laureate named Ina

This week I bring to the forefront Ina Coolbrith. Jack London was quite taken with her, stating her to be the noblest woman he had ever met. Her story begins with her birth in 1841, when the small pueblo of Sonoma was in its infancy.  Coolbrith was born Josephine Anna Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois, and was the niece of Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saints. Her father, Don Carlos Smith was the brother of Joseph and died shortly after her birth. Coolbrith’s mother, Agnes Moulton Coolbrith, then married Joseph in 1842, and was probably the only wife that did not bear him any children.

Joseph Smith was killed in 1844 and Ina and her mother moved to Saint Louis. Agnes remarried and had two sons with printer and lawyer William Picket.  In 1851, seeking a better life, the family traveled overland to California. While the overland trip was arduous for a child of ten, Ina passed the time reading Shakespeare. Along the journey to Los Angeles, Ina met African-American scout Jim Beckwourth, riding with him on his horse into the new frontier.

Young Ina met Robert Bruce Carsley, an iron-worker and part-time actor, and married him in 1858.  Carsley goes down in history as being both physically and mentally abusive.  Ina endured further trauma with the death of her infant son, and after an altercation with Ina’s father and Carsley and a gun, Carsley’s hand had to be amputated. Ina divorced Carsley and in a very public and sensational trial, and the marriage was dissolved in 1861. Once the divorce was final, Ina headed north to San Francisco.

In San Francisco, Coolbrith began publishing poems in The Galaxy and Overland Monthly. She also began to rub shoulders with Bret Harte and Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). Though Harte was the editor of the overland Monthly, Coolbrith assisted him in selecting poems, articles and short stories worthy of publication.

Though, a well respected writer in her own right, Coolbrith had a difficult time making ends meet and took a job at the Oakland Library in 1874.  Coolbrith felt this was a low-point in her life, restricting her from her passion of writing. She worked long hours at the library, but gained a reputation among writers as a good contact and mentor. One of her most poignant works, “Beside the Dead” was written by her that first year at the Oakland Library, to honor the death of her sister. She wrote:

“It must be sweet, O thou, my dead, to lie      With hands that folded are from every task;     Sealed with the seal of the great mystery,      The lips that nothing answer, nothing ask…”

Jack London visited the Oakland Library and met Coolbrith in 1886 at the age of 10.  Coolbrith selected literature she felt suited the young writer and mentored him during their time together. London referred to her as his “literary mother” and 20 years later wrote “I named you ‘Noble’. That is what you were to me-noble…no woman has so affected me to the extent you did…in all the years that have passed I have met no woman so noble as you.”

Coolbrith was abruptly fired in 1892. One library trustee was quoted as saying, “we need a librarian not a poet.” Indeed, Coolbrith was recognized in the monthly journal Current Opinion as “…a pure, melodious and natural singer.  Her work is characterized by great delicacy and refinement of feeling…” Year later, Bret Harte called her “the sweetest note in California literature.”

In 1915, Coolbrith received the honor as California’s first unofficial poet laureate. It took California many years to officially adopt a poet laureate position and in 2001 Governor Gray Davis did just that. Coolbrith held the position until her death in 1928.