- Katrina Trask
Katrina Trask (
May 30 , 1853 –January 8 ,1922 ) was an author and philanthropist.Life account
She was born Kate Nichols in
Brooklyn ,New York City to George Little Nichols and Christina Mary Cole. Her father was a partner in a large importing firm.She married
Spencer Trask , a prominentWall Street Banker and financier onNovember 12 ,1874 . Her husband was a director of several railroads and the president of theEdison Illuminating Company ofNew York . He also helped plan and finance the reorganization of theNew York Times in 1896.Katrina was the mother of four children, all of whom died in infancy or childhood. Spencer was killed in a railroad accident in 1909. In 1913 Katrina suffered several heart attacks and spent much of the remainder of her life developing and financing
Yaddo where she was an invalid.On
February 6 , 1921 she marriedGeorge Foster Peabody . Katrina died less than a year later in 1922.Career
In 1878 she wrote "Colorado leaves" and in 1888 the "Chronicles of Yaddo". Her first book, "Under King Constantine", was published anonymously in 1892. The book contains three long love poems and was written in three days under intense mental strain. She hid the poems away for years until finally persuaded by her husband to have them published. It went through five editions and beginning with the second edition she started identifying herself as Katrina Trask.
She published "Free Not Bound" (1903), a novel, and "Night & Morning" (1907), a narrative in
Blank verse both were about love and marriage. In 1908 she wrote "King Alfred’s Jewel" a historical drama also in blank verse.As an avid pacifist she wrote an antiwar play, "In the Vanguard" which appeared a year before
World War I and went through eight editions and was performed by women clubs and church groups.Works
* "Colorado leaves" 1878
* "Chronicles of Yaddo" 1888
* "Under King Constantine" 1892
* "Sonnets and Lyrics" 1894
* "White Satin and Homespun" 1896
* "John Leighton, Jr.: a novel" 1898
* "Lessons in Love" 1900
* "Free Not Bound" 1903
* "Mors Et Victoria [a Drama] " 1903
* "Night & Morning" 1907
* "King Alfred’s Jewel" 1908
* "In the Vanguard" 1913
* "The Statue of Peace" 1914
* "The Mighty and the Lowly" 1915
* "Without the Walls: A Reading Play" 1919References
* Weber, H. R. "Trask, Kate Nichols" "Notable American Women", Vol. 3, 4th ed., The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1975
* [http://www.worldcat.org/ worldcat.org] Accessed April 7, 2007External links
*
* [http://www.yaddo.org/ yaddo.org]
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