Katharine Lee Bates
(August 12, 1859 - March 28, 1929)
Probably best known as the author of the words to "America the Beautiful," Katharine Lee Bates was a prolific poet and a professor of English and head of the English department at Wellesley, where she had been a student in its earliest years.
Her father, a Congregational minister, died when Katharine was less than a month old. Her brothers had to go to work to help support the family, but Katharine was given an education. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College in 1880. She wrote to supplement her income. "Sleep" was published by The Atlantic Monthly during her undergraduate years at Wellesley.
A trip to Colorado in 1893 and the view from Pikes Peak inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write the poem, "America the Beautiful," which was published in The Congregationalist two years after she wrote it. The Boston Evening Transcript published a revised version in 1904, and the public adopted the idealistic poem quickly.
Katharine Lee Bates helped found the New England Poetry Club in 1915 and served for a time as its president, and she was involved in a few social reform activities, working for labor reform and planning the College Settlements Association with Vida Scudder. She was raised in the Congregational faith of her ancestors; as an adult, she was deeply religious but could not find a church in whose faith she could be certain.
Katharine Lee Bates lived for twenty-five years with Katharine Coman in a committed partnership that has sometimes been described as a "romantic friendship." Bates wrote, after Coman died, "So much of me died with Katharine Coman that I'm sometimes not quite sure whether I'm alive or not."
Bates' teaching career was the central interest of her adult life. She believed that through literature, human values could be revealed and developed.
Katherine Lee Bates: on this site
Also on this site
Katharine Lee Bates: Life
- Katharine Lee Bates - includes information on her "romantic friendship" with Katharine Coman
- Katharine Lee Bates
Katharine Lee Bates: Writings
- Retinue and Other Poems (1918)
- America the Beautiful - with music and including a bit of the music's history (plays sound on loading the page)
- Poetry of Katharine Lee Bates
- Sleep. The Atlantic Monthly, vol. 44, issue 264 (October 1879).
- The Ideal. The Century, vol. 39, issue 6 (Apr 1890).
- Only. The New England Magazine, vol. 9, issue 4 (December 1890).
- Success. The New England Magazine, vol. 10, issue 1 (March 1891).
- Heart of Hearts. The Century, vol. 43, issue 4 (Feb 1892).
- The Funeral of Phillips Brooks. The New England Magazine, vol. 14, issue 4 (June 1893).
- Logic. The New England Magazine, vol. 17, issue 3 (November 1894).
- Festivals at American Colleges for Women. At Wellesley. The Century, vol. 49, issue 3 (Jan 1895).
- A Private. The New England Magazine, new series, vol. 20, issue 5 (July 1899).
Bibliography
- Sherr, Lynn. America the Beautiful: The Stirring True Story Behind Our Nation's Favorite Song. 2001. (compare prices)
- Sunshine and Other Verses for Children - 1890
- America the Beautiful and Other Poems - 1911
- Retinue and Other Poems - 1918
- Burgess, D. W. B. - 1952 biography
- Younger, Barbara. Purple Mountain Majesties: The Story of Katharine Lee Bates and 'America the Beautiful.' Illustrated by Stacey Shuett. Grades 3-5. (compare prices)
- America the Beautiful. Illustrated by Neil Waldman. Ages 4-8. (compare prices)
- America the Beautiful. Illustrated by Wendell Minor. (compare prices)
- America the Beautiful Illustrated by Gall. Grades 1-7. (compare prices)
About Katharine Lee Bates
- Categories: poet, writer, playwright, educator - wrote text of "America the Beautiful"
- Organizational Affiliations: Wellesley College
- Places: Massachusetts, United States
- Period: 19th century, 20th century
- Religious Associations: Congregational
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Text copyright 1999-2008 © Jone Johnson Lewis.
