Ina Coolbrith

Ina Coolbrith was an internationally beloved poet from California. She was the very first American Poet Laureate and the first librarian of the Oakland Public Library system. She was also the first person asked to write a commencement speech for the University of California, and did so twice. She was held in the highest esteem by many famous writers of her time, including Mark Twain, and Joaquin Miller. Jack London, her mentee, called her his “literary mother,” and Isadora Duncan, whom Coolbrith mentored as well, recalled in her memoirs *the beauty and fire of the poet’s eyes.