Ina Coolbrith: Poetry Reborn, Part I
By Mick Storm, Coastal Dunes Branch
Famous author and honorary co-founder of the California Writers Club, Jack London, once wrote a letter to the Oakland librarian he knew during his childhood. According to biographer Aleta George, the ten-year-old London stood nervously waiting to check out a book using a family member’s library card. Instead of telling Jack London he was too young to check out a book, the beloved librarian, Ina Coolbrith, stamped the book and handed it back to the boy, saying, “That was a fine choice.” Years later, in his letter to Coolbrith, London wrote, “Proud, if you only knew what your words meant to me. Did you know that you were the first one who ever complimented me on my reading matter?”
Many do not know that California’s first Poet Laureate was born into a famous religious family, once dated Mark Twain, or that she ceased using her birth name and adopted a new one.
Josephine Donna Smith was born in Nauvoo, Illinois, on March 10th, 1841, to Agnes M. Coolbrith and Don Carlos Smith, the youngest sibling of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon (Latter Day Saints) Church. Her father died of pneumonia later that year, and her mother eventually remarried and moved the family to Los Angeles. By age eleven, Smith’s poems were being published in local newspapers. Later, sparked by her failed marriage, Josephine moved to San Francisco with her mother and adopted a new name. Josephine, who was sometimes called Josephina, chose Ina as her first name. And keeping her middle name, she adopted her mother’s maiden name; thus, the poet became Ina Donna Coolbrith.
In 1868, in recognition of her literary prowess, Bret Harte (a famous author who wrote of the California Gold Rush) appointed Coolbrith to be a coeditor of the Overland Monthly. She sponsored literary salons in her home and, as a result, introduced several young writers to publishers. Coolbrith became associated professionally and socially with several writers, such as Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, and Joaquin Miller. Her literary fame received the praise and attention of poets Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and naturalist John Muir.
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about Ina Coolbrith’s extraordinary life.