Ina Coolbrith by Aleta George
As Heard on The Daily Gardener Podcast:
This book came out in 2015, and the subtitle is The Bittersweet Song of California’s First Poet Laureate.
Hark! Lend me your ear, for I bring a tale spun from Californian sunshine and grit, a story wilder than the poppies that paint the golden hills.
Forget the insipid novels gathering dust on your shelf, for here lies a biography that thrums with the vibrancy of a desert bloom after a rare desert rain.
Ina Coolbrith, a name whispered on the wind these days, was once a literary sun around which the brightest California stars orbited – Bret Harte, Mark Twain, John Muir, these were but a few basking in her brilliance. (I discovered Ina Coolbrith when I was researching Ettie Alexander. Ettie's book on wildflowers included some of Ina's poems.)
Imagine a woman, a pioneer poet, who not only wielded words with the grace of a hummingbird sipping nectar but also championed the underdog, becoming a literary godmother to the likes of Jack London. John Greenleaf Whittier claimed he knew more of her poems by heart than she did his.
But this is no saccharine fairy tale of California's first poet laureate.
Ina's life was a tapestry woven with bold threads of triumph and the tear-stained cloth of adversity. Born under the shadow of a Mormon prophet (Ina was the niece of Joseph Smith of the Mormon Church), she found solace in the rustling leaves and the whispering wind, crafting poems that resonated with the untamed spirit of California.
However, fate, that fickle jester, dealt her a cruel hand. Loss, prejudice, and even the earth itself trembling in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake all threatened to extinguish her flame. Yet, like the phoenix rising from the ashes, Ina persevered, her spirit as indomitable as the redwoods that line the Californian coast.
Aleta George, a weaver of words herself, captures Ina's extraordinary journey in a biography that is as captivating as a forgotten Victorian novel.
Prepare to be swept away by tales of literary salons, bohemian San Francisco, and a woman who dared to defy convention and claim her place in the pantheon of American poets.
So, dear reader, if you yearn for a story that is both poignant and exhilarating, then delve into the life of Ina Coolbrith. You won't be disappointed. Just remember, this book isn't for the faint of heart; it chronicles a life as vibrant and untamed as the California it celebrates.
SI HORTUM IN HORTORIA PODCASTA IN BIBLIOTEHCA HABES, NIHIL DEERIT.