Aleta George

A well written and well researched biography of a very influential poet, librarian, and woman of letters who traveled overland to California with her family in 1851. The first poet laureate not only in California, but the first poet laureate in the United States, she lived in San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, and New York, knowing and influencing the more famous men of letters including Bret Harte, Joaquin Miller, Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens, Ambrose Bierce, John Muir, and Jack London. Published in the most popular and influential publications of the time, as well as producing collections of poetry, this biography not only is an engaging history of her long life but of the literary life of California and beyond in the 1850s through 1928.… (altro)