Just south of Latham Lane in North Berkeley you’ll find Ina Coolbrith Path, which connects Miller Avenue and Grizzly Peak Blvd. If you’ve ever wondered about its namesake, the path commemorates a remarkable woman who figured prominently in the state’s literary history.
Born Josephine Smith in Illinois to Mormon parents, she was the niece of Joseph Smith—the founder of the Mormon Church. After her father died, her mother remarried and moved the family to California where “Josephina” was educated and briefly married. At the age of 20, after leaving her abusive husband, she took her mother’s maiden name and became Ina Donna Coolbrith. She worked for 20 years as a librarian at the Oakland Free Public Library, where she encouraged many local readers—among them, the young Jack London and Isadora Duncan. Much later, London and Coolbrith would be considered founders of California’s golden age of literature.
“No woman has so affected me to the extent you did,” London later wrote to her. “I was only a little lad. I knew absolutely nothing about you. Yet in all the years that have passed I have met no woman so noble as you.”
Coolbrith soon settled in San Francisco and became acquainted with the local writing community, including Ambrose Bierce, Joaquin Miller, and Charles Warren Stoddard. She hosted many literary salons at her home and co-edited, with Bret Harte, the Overland Monthly journal. She published four collections of poetry in a variety of styles and became California’s first poet laureate in 1915. The Bohemian Club made her its first female honorary member.
When the paths and stairways in the Berkeley Hills were first named after Bret Harte, Charles Warren Stoddard, Mark Twain, and other literati in Coolbrith’s circle, women were not included. In 2016, a path was renamed for Coolbrith, making her the first woman to have a path named after her.
She’s buried at Oakland’s Mountain View Cemetery, in a grave that was unmarked until 1986, when the Ina Coolbrith Circle erected a headstone there. You can also see Coolbrith’s brown- shingled home at 2902 Hillegass Avenue, as mentioned in Berkeley Walks, written by BPWA’s own Robert E. Johnson and Janet L. Byron. You might also enjoy the Quick Guide to Berkeley Names published by the Berkeley Historical Society.