A Perfect Day and Other Poems

San Francisco printer John H. Carmany and Company issued A Perfect Day and Other Poems in 1881 as the debut collection of Ina Coolbrith (1841-1928), co-editor of the Overland Monthly alongside Bret Harte and later California’s first poet laureate. The book gathered lyrics she had contributed to the Overland and other magazines through the 1870s and appeared as a special author’s subscription edition. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow read it and remarked that California had at least one poet, an endorsement that fixed her reputation on both coasts. Coolbrith, a niece of the Mormon founder Joseph Smith, had crossed the Sierra into California as a child and spent decades as Oakland’s librarian. This collection preserves the early lyric voice at the center of San Francisco’s first literary circle. Free PDF download available on BDeBooks.