Josephine Jacobsen
| Josephine Jacobsen | |
|---|---|
| Born | Josephine Winder Boylan August 19, 1908 Coburg, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | 9 July 2003 (aged 94) Cockneyville, Maryland, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Self-educated and private tutors |
| Alma mater | Roland Park Country School in Baltimore |
| Genres | Poetry, short stories, reviews |
| Notable works | In the Crevice of Time: New and Collected Poems (1995) won the Poets' Prize. |
| Notable awards | Received multiple grants, prizes, and awards. Robert Frost Medal (1997) |
| Years active | Eight decades |
| Spouse | Eric Jacobsen, 63 years |
| Children | Erlend Jacobsen |
Josephine Jacobsen (19 August 1908 – 9 July 2003) was an American poet, short story writer, essayist, and critic. She was appointed the twenty-first Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1971. In 1997, she received the Poetry Society of America’s highest award, the Robert Frost Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry.
Josephine Jacobsen, in full Josephine Winder Jacobsen, née Josephine Winder Boylan was born August 19, 1908 in Coburg, Ontario, Canada. Her birth was “premature and dramatic”. Her American parents were vacationing in Canada and anticipated her arrival several months later. The baby Jacobsen weighed only two-and-a-half pounds and was not expected to survive. However, her mother, Octavia Winder Boylan, was determined that she would survive. At age 94, recalling her birth, Jacobsen reflected, "I must have been a fierce particle." Jacobsen was taken to New York at age three months.
Jacobsen’s father, a doctor and amateur Egyptologist, died when she was five. Her brother suffered a nervous breakdown; her mother suffered bouts of manic depression. Jacobsen found solace in reading the poetry of Robert W. Service and Rudyard Kipling and they inspired her to begin writing poetry.
After her father's death, Josephine and her mother traveled constantly. This prevented her from going to school. They did not settle in one place long enough for Josephine to go to school. Taught by private tutors, she became a voracious reader.
At age fourteen, Jacobsen moved to Maryland with her mother and lived there until her death. There she was again educated by private tutors at Roland Park Country School in Baltimore, graduating in 1926.
Jacobsen’s mother never went to college, but like her daughter she was a “tremendous reader”. Thus, it followed that when her daughter’s headmistress suggested that Jacobsen go to college, her mother disagreed, so her daughter never attended college. Instead, Jacobsen “wrote, travelled, and acted with the Vagabond Players (a well-known Baltimore theatre troupe) until 1932 when she married”. Her husband was Eric Jacobsen, a tea importer. They were “happily” married for 63 years until he died in 1995.
Jacobsen's literary career began when her first poem was published in the children's St. Nicholas Magazine when she was 11 years old. Jacobsen described seeing her poem in print in St. Nicholas as the “most amazing feeling” and “a special occasion”. She said that she thought, “I’m a professional poet at the age of 11.” In her late teens, Jacobsen started publishing in the Junior League magazine Connected.
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