About Florence Van Leer Earle Coates
Florence Van Leer Nicholson Coates was an American poet whose prolific output was published in dozens of literary magazines, some of it set to music. She was mentored by the English poet Matthew Arnold, with whom she maintained a lasting friendship. She was famous for her many nature poems, inspired by the flora and fauna of the Adirondacks, where she and her husband Edward Hornor Coates maintained a summer camp. She was elected poet laureate by the State Federation of Women's Clubs (Pennsylvania) in 1915. Edward Coates would eventually adopt Florence's daughter from her first marriage—Alice Earle Nicholson (born October 21, 1873). Coates and Arnold first met in New York during Arnold's first visit and lecture tour of America, at the home of Andrew Carnegie, "where they formed a lasting friendship". The poem, "Helen Keller with a Rose", was published in the July 1905 issue—without the accompanying photograph, but with reference to the issue in which it first appeared.
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