Coolbrith began to write a history of California literature , including much autobiographical material , but the fire following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake consumed her work . Author Gertrude Atherton and Coolbrith 's Bohemian Club friends helped set her up again in a new house , and she resumed writing and holding literary salons . She traveled by train to New York City several times and , with fewer worldly cares , greatly increased her poetry output . On June 30 , 1915 , Coolbrith was named California 's poet laureate , and she continued to write poetry for eight more years . Her style was more than the usual melancholic or uplifting themes expected of women — she included a wide variety of subjects in her poems , which were noted as being " singularly sympathetic " and " palpably spontaneous " . Her sensuous descriptions of natural scenes advanced the art of Victorian poetry to incorporate greater accuracy without trite sentiment , foreshadowing the Imagist school and the work of Robert Frost . California poet laureate Carol Muske-Dukes wrote of Coolbrith 's poems that , though they " were steeped in a high tea lavender style " , influenced by a British stateliness , " California remained her inspiration . " Ina Coolbrith was born '' ' Josephine Donna Smith ' '' in Nauvoo , Illinois , the last of three daughters of Agnes Moulton Coolbrith and Don Carlos Smith , brother to Joseph Smith Coolbrith 's father died of malarial fever four months after her birth , and a sister died one month after that ; Coolbrith 's mother then married Joseph Smith , in 1842 , becoming his sixth or seventh wife . No children came of the union — Agnes felt neglected in her unfruitful Levirate marriage , the only such marriage of Smith . In June 1844 , Smith was killed at the hands of an anti-Mormon mob . Losing her faith and fearful of her life , Coolbrith 's mother left the Latter-day Saint community and moved to Saint Louis , Missouri , where she married a printer and lawyer named William Pickett . Twin sons were born to the couple , and in 1851 Pickett traveled overland with his new family to California in a wagon train . On the long trek , the young Ina read from a book of Shakespeare 's works and from a collection of Byron 's poems . As a ten-year-old girl , Ina entered California in front of the wagon train with the famous African-American scout Jim Beckwourth , riding with him on his horse , through what would later be named Beckwourth Pass . The family settled in Los Angeles , California , and Pickett established a law practice
1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
Ina Coolbrith