Ina Coolbrith created the BRAND that made Joaquin Miller famous. Joaquin had dinner with the Pre-Raphaelites, and might have met William Morris who inspired Tolkien. John Fremont inspired Brigham Young to go West.

Coolbrith, born the niece ofThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsfounderJoseph Smith, left the Mormon community as a child to enter her teens inLos Angeles, California, where she began to publish poetry. She terminated a youthful failed marriage to make her home inSan Francisco, and met writersBret HarteandCharles Warren Stoddardwith whom she formed the “Golden Gate Trinity” closely associated with the literary journalOverland Monthly. Her poetry received positive notice from critics and established poets such asMark Twain,Ambrose BierceandAlfred Lord Tennyson. She held literarysalonsat her home in Russian Hill^[3]—in this way she introduced…