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Josephine Jacobsen
Josephine Jacobsen (19 August 1908 – 9 July 2003) was a Canadian-born American poet, short story writer, essayist, and critic. She was appointed the twenty-first Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1971. In 1997, she received the Poetry Society of America's highest award, the Robert Frost Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry.
Jacobsen was born Josephine Boylan on August 19, 1908, in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada. Her American parents were vacationing in Canada and anticipated her arrival several months later. The baby Jacobsen weighed only two-and-a-half pounds and was not expected to survive. However, her mother, Octavia Winder Boylan, was determined that she would survive. Jacobsen was taken to New York at age three months.
Jacobsen's father, a doctor and amateur Egyptologist, died when she was five. Her brother suffered a nervous breakdown; her mother suffered bouts of manic depression. Jacobsen found solace in reading the poetry of Robert W. Service and Rudyard Kipling and they inspired her to begin writing poetry.
After her father's death, Josephine and her mother traveled constantly, which prevented her from going to school. They did not settle in one place long enough for Josephine to go to school. Taught by private tutors, she became a voracious reader.
At age fourteen, Jacobsen moved to Maryland with her mother and lived there until her death. There she was, again, educated by private tutors at Roland Park Country School in Baltimore, graduating in 1926.
Jacobsen's mother never went to college, but like her daughter she was a "tremendous reader". Thus, it followed that when her daughter's headmistress suggested that Jacobsen go to college, her mother disagreed, so her daughter never attended college. Instead, Jacobsen "wrote, travelled, and acted with the Vagabond Players (a well-known Baltimore theatre troupe) until 1932 when she married".
Jacobsen's literary career began when her first poem was published in the children's St. Nicholas Magazine when she was 11 years old. Jacobsen described seeing her poem in print in St. Nicholas as the "most amazing feeling" and "a special occasion". She said that she thought, "I'm a professional poet at the age of 11." In her late teens, Jacobsen started publishing in the Junior League magazine Connected.
Jacobsen's first poetry collection, Let Each Man Remember, was published in 1940. However, she did not gain widespread recognition until her 60s. For Jacobsen, it was "the writing itself, not prizes or possible honors, that mattered the most". She also said that the "greatest thing" she can feel about one of her poems is that it has " helped another human being in a really bad time".
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Josephine Jacobsen
Josephine Jacobsen (19 August 1908 – 9 July 2003) was a Canadian-born American poet, short story writer, essayist, and critic. She was appointed the twenty-first Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1971. In 1997, she received the Poetry Society of America's highest award, the Robert Frost Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry.
Jacobsen was born Josephine Boylan on August 19, 1908, in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada. Her American parents were vacationing in Canada and anticipated her arrival several months later. The baby Jacobsen weighed only two-and-a-half pounds and was not expected to survive. However, her mother, Octavia Winder Boylan, was determined that she would survive. Jacobsen was taken to New York at age three months.
Jacobsen's father, a doctor and amateur Egyptologist, died when she was five. Her brother suffered a nervous breakdown; her mother suffered bouts of manic depression. Jacobsen found solace in reading the poetry of Robert W. Service and Rudyard Kipling and they inspired her to begin writing poetry.
After her father's death, Josephine and her mother traveled constantly, which prevented her from going to school. They did not settle in one place long enough for Josephine to go to school. Taught by private tutors, she became a voracious reader.
At age fourteen, Jacobsen moved to Maryland with her mother and lived there until her death. There she was, again, educated by private tutors at Roland Park Country School in Baltimore, graduating in 1926.
Jacobsen's mother never went to college, but like her daughter she was a "tremendous reader". Thus, it followed that when her daughter's headmistress suggested that Jacobsen go to college, her mother disagreed, so her daughter never attended college. Instead, Jacobsen "wrote, travelled, and acted with the Vagabond Players (a well-known Baltimore theatre troupe) until 1932 when she married".
Jacobsen's literary career began when her first poem was published in the children's St. Nicholas Magazine when she was 11 years old. Jacobsen described seeing her poem in print in St. Nicholas as the "most amazing feeling" and "a special occasion". She said that she thought, "I'm a professional poet at the age of 11." In her late teens, Jacobsen started publishing in the Junior League magazine Connected.
Jacobsen's first poetry collection, Let Each Man Remember, was published in 1940. However, she did not gain widespread recognition until her 60s. For Jacobsen, it was "the writing itself, not prizes or possible honors, that mattered the most". She also said that the "greatest thing" she can feel about one of her poems is that it has " helped another human being in a really bad time".