Katharine Lee Bates (1859–1929)

Katharine Lee Bates was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts, the daughter of a minister and a schoolteacher. She attended Wellesley College, where she studied English and Greek, explored her interest in poetry, and published one of her poems in The Atlantic Monthly. After graduating in 1880, she spent several years working as a teacher. She then returned to Wellesley College and joined the faculty as an English instructor. She became a well-known scholar of English literature, especially the works of William Shakespeare, and authored several books, including The English Religious Drama (1893). She also wrote about her European travels in such works as Spanish Highways and Byways (1900) and From Gretna Green to Land's End: A Literary Journey in England (1907). She published a few children's books, including little Robin Stay-Behind (1923). She served as the head of Wellesley's Department of English for many years. In 1893, her now-famous poem, "America the Beautiful," was published for the first time in The Congregationalist. After some revisions, it was included in her verse collection America the Beautiful and Other Poems in 1911. After further revisions, it became the lyrics to the patriotic ballad "America the Beautiful."