Katharine Lee Bates
Encyclopedia
Katharine Lee Bates was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 songwriter. She is remembered as the author of the words to the anthem "America the Beautiful
America the Beautiful
"America the Beautiful" is an American patriotic song. The lyrics were written by Katharine Lee Bates and the music composed by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward....

". She popularized "Mrs. Santa Claus"
Mrs. Claus
Mrs. Claus is the wife of Santa Claus, the Christmas gift-bringer in North American Christmas tradition.While Santa Claus himself emerged from the 1820s from a number of traditions of European folklore, Mrs...

 through her poem Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride (1889).

Life and career

Bates was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts
Falmouth, Massachusetts
Falmouth is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States; Barnstable County is coextensive with Cape Cod. The population was 31,531 at the 2010 census....

, the daughter of a Congregational
Congregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

 pastor
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....

. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1880 and for many years was a professor of English literature at Wellesley. While teaching there, she was elected a member of the newly formed Pi Gamma Mu
Pi Gamma Mu
Pi Gamma Mu or ΠΓΜ is the oldest and preeminent honor society in the social sciences. It is also the only interdisciplinary social science honor society. It serves the various social science disciplines which seek to understand and explain human behavior and social relationships as well as their...

 honor society for the social sciences because of her interest in history and politics, which she had also studied.

Relationship with Katharine Coman

Bates lived in Wellesley with Katharine Coman
Katharine Coman
Katharine Coman was a social activist and distinguished economist. She specialized in teaching about the development of the American West...

, who was a history and political economy teacher and founder of the Wellesley College school Economics department. The pair lived together for twenty-five years until Coman's death in 1915. It is debated whether their relationship was an intimate lesbian relationship as different sources maintain or platonic (sometimes called a "Boston marriage
Boston marriage
Boston marriage as a term is said to have been in use in New England in the decades spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries to describe two women living together, independent of financial support from a man. The term was little known until the debut in 2000 of the David Mamet play of the...

") as the local historical society of her birthplace maintains. In the years following Coman's death, Bates wrote Yellow Clover: A Book of Remembrance, to Katharine Coman. Almost all the poems there contained refer to the relationship between Bates and Coman.

America the Beautiful

The first draft of "America the Beautiful
America the Beautiful
"America the Beautiful" is an American patriotic song. The lyrics were written by Katharine Lee Bates and the music composed by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward....

" was hastily jotted down in a notebook during the summer of 1893, which Bates spent teaching English at Colorado College
Colorado College
The Colorado College is a private liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell...

 in Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...

. Later she remembered:
One day some of the other teachers and I decided to go on a trip to 14,000-foot Pikes Peak
Pikes Peak
Pikes Peak is a mountain in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, west of Colorado Springs, Colorado, in El Paso County in the United States of America....

. We hired a prairie wagon. Near the top we had to leave the wagon and go the rest of the way on mules. I was very tired. But when I saw the view, I felt great joy. All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse.


The words to her only famous poem first appeared in print in The Congregationalist, a weekly journal, for Independence Day, 1895. The poem reached a wider audience when her revised version was printed in the Boston Evening Transcript
Boston Evening Transcript
The Boston Evening Transcript was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, published from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941.-Beginnings:...

on November 19, 1904. Her final expanded version was written in 1913.

The hymn has been sung to several tunes, but the familiar one used by Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...

 is by Samuel A. Ward
Samuel A. Ward
Samuel Augustus Ward was an American organist and composer. Born in Newark, New Jersey, Ward studied music in New York and became an organist at Grace Episcopal Church in Newark in 1880. He is remembered for his hymn "Materna" which was used for the anthem "America the Beautiful", with words by...

 (1847–1903), written for his hymn "Materna" (1882).

Other writings, honors, and death

Bates was a prolific author of many volumes of poetry, travel books
Travel literature
Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...

, and children's books. She popularized Mrs. Claus
Mrs. Claus
Mrs. Claus is the wife of Santa Claus, the Christmas gift-bringer in North American Christmas tradition.While Santa Claus himself emerged from the 1820s from a number of traditions of European folklore, Mrs...

 in her poem Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride from the collection Sunshine and other Verses for Children (1889).

Her family home on Falmouth's Main Street is preserved by the Falmouth Historical Society. There is also a street named in her honor, "Katharine Lee Bates Road" in Falmouth. Bates lived as an adult on Centre Street in Newton, Massachusetts
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...

. A historic plaque marks the site of her home.

Bates has two schools named in her honor, the Katharine Lee Bates Elementary School, located on Elmwood Road in Wellesley, Massachusetts
Wellesley, Massachusetts
Wellesley is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of Greater Boston. The population was 27,982 at the time of the 2010 census.It is best known as the home of Wellesley College and Babson College...

 and the Katharine Lee Bates Elementary School, located in Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...

. The latter was founded in 1957.

Bates died in Wellesley, Massachusetts
Wellesley, Massachusetts
Wellesley is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of Greater Boston. The population was 27,982 at the time of the 2010 census.It is best known as the home of Wellesley College and Babson College...

, on March 28, 1929, aged 69, and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery at Falmouth. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame
Songwriters Hall of Fame
The Songwriters Hall of Fame is an arm of the National Academy of Popular Music. It was founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer and music publishers Abe Olman and Howie Richmond. The goal is to create a museum but as of April, 2008, the means do not yet exist and so instead it is an online...

 in 1970.

Works

  • (Editor) The Wedding Day Book, Lothrop (Boston, MA), 1882, published as The Wedding-Day Book, with the Congratulations of the Poets, Lothrop (Boston, MA), 1895.
  • The College Beautiful, and Other Poems, Houghton (Cambridge, MA), 1887.
  • (Editor) Coleridge
    Samuel Taylor Coleridge
    Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...

    's Ancient Mariner
    The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
    The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–98 and was published in 1798 in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads. Modern editions use a later revised version printed in 1817 that featured a gloss...

    , Leach, Shewell & Sanborn (Boston, MA), 1889.
  • Rose and Thorn, Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society (Boston, MA), 1889.
  • (Editor) Ballad Book, Leach, Shewell & Sanborn (Boston, MA), 1890, reprinted, Books for Libraries Press (Freeport, NY), 1969.
  • Hermit Island, Lothrop (Boston, MA), 1890.
  • Sunshine, and Other Verses for Children, Wellesley Alumnae (Boston, MA), 1890.
  • The English Religious Drama, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1893, reprinted, Kennikat Press (Port Washington, NY), 1966.
  • (Editor) Shakespeare
    William Shakespeare
    William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

    's Comedy of The Merchant of Venice
    The Merchant of Venice
    The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...

    , Leach, Shewell & Sanborn (Boston, MA), 1894.
  • (Editor) Shakespeare's Comedy of A Midsummer Night's Dream
    A Midsummer Night's Dream
    A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...

    , Leach, Shewell & Sanborn (Boston, MA), 1895.
  • (Editor) Shakespeare's Comedy of As You Like It
    As You Like It
    As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...

    , Leach, Shewell & Sanborn (Boston, MA), 1896.
  • (Compiler) Browning Studies: Bibliography, Robinson (Boston, MA), 1896.
  • (Editor) Stories from the Chap-Book
    The Chap-Book
    The Chap-Book was an American literary magazine between 1894 and 1898. It is often classified as one of the "little magazines" of the 1890s....

    , Stone (Chicago, IL), 1896.
  • (Compiler with Lydia Boker Godfrey) English Drama: A Working Basis, Robinson(Boston, MA), 1896, enlarged as Shakespeare: Selective Bibliography and Biographical Notes, compiled by Bates and Lilla Weed, Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA), 1913.
  • American Literature, Chautauqua Press (New York, NY), 1897.
  • Spanish Highways and Byways, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1900.
  • (Editor) Keats's The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, Silver, Burdett, (New York, NY), 1902.
  • (Editor and author of introduction) The Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne
    Nathaniel Hawthorne
    Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...

    , fourteen volumes, Crowell (New York, NY), 1902.
  • (Editor) Hamilton Wright Mabie, Norse Stories Retold from the Eddas, Rand, McNally
    Rand McNally
    Rand McNally is an American publisher of maps, atlases, textbooks, and globes for travel, reference, commercial, and educational uses. It also provides online consumer street maps and directions, as well as commercial transportation routing software and mileage data...

     (Chicago
    Chicago
    Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

    , IL
    Illinois
    Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

    ), 1902.
  • (Compiler with Katharine Coman) English History Told by English Poets, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1902, reprinted, Books for Libraries Press (Freeport, NY), 1969.
  • (As James Lincoln) Relishes of Rhyme, Richard G. Badger (Boston, MA), 1903.
  • (Editor) The Poems of Alice and Phoebe Cary, Crowell (New York, NY), 1903.
  • (Editor) John Ruskin, The King of the Golden River
    The King of the Golden River
    The King of the Golden River or The Black Brothers: A Legend of Stiria by John Ruskin was originally written in 1841 for the twelve-year-old Effie Gray, whom Ruskin later married. It was published in book form in 1851, and became an early Victorian classic which sold out three editions...

    ; or, the Black Brothers: A Legend of Stiria
    , illustrated by John C. Johansen, Rand, McNally (Chicago, IL), 1903.
  • (Editor) Tennyson
    Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
    Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language....

    's The Princess
    , American Book Co. (New York, NY), 1904.
  • (Editor) Tennyson's Gareth and Lynette, Lancelot and Elaine, The Passing of Arthur, Sibley (Boston, MA), 1905.
  • (Author of introduction) Nathaniel Hawthorne, Our Old Home: A Series of English Sketches, Crowell (New York, NY), 1906.
  • From Gretna Green to Land's End: A Literary Journey in England, photographs by Katharine Coman, Crowell (New York, NY), 1907.
  • (Translator, with Cornelia Frances Bates) Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, Romantic Legends of Spain, Crowell (New York), 1909, reprinted, Books for Libraries Press (Freeport, NY), 1971.
  • The Story of Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims, Rand, McNally (Chicago, IL), 1909.
  • America the Beautiful, and Other Poems, Crowell (New York, NY), 1911.
  • (Compiler and editor) The New Irish Drama, Drama League of America (Chicago, IL), 1911.
  • In Sunny Spain with Pilarica and Rafael, Dutton (New York, NY), 1913.
  • Chaucer
    Geoffrey Chaucer
    Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...

    's Canterbury Pilgrims, Retold
    by Katharine Lee Bates, illustrated by Angus MacDonall, color plates by Milo Winter
    Milo Winter
    Milo Winter was a well known book illustrator, who produced works for editions of Aesop's Fables, Arabian Nights, Alice in Wonderland, Gulliver's Travels, Tanglewood Tales and others.- Background :...

    , Rand, McNally (Chicago, IL), 1914.
  • Fairy Gold, Dutton, (New York, NY), 1916.
  • (Author of introduction) Helen Sanborn, Anne of Brittany, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard (Boston, MA), 1917.
  • (Editor) Thomas Heywood, A Woman Killed with Kindness, and the Faire Maide of the West, Heath (Boston, MA), 1917.
  • The Retinue, and Other Poems, Dutton (New York, NY), 1918.
  • Sigurd Our Golden Collie, and Other Comrades of the Road, Dutton (New York, NY), 1919.
  • (Editor) Once Upon a Time; A Book of Old-Time Fairy Tales, illustrated by Margaret Evans Price, Rand, McNally (Chicago, IL), 1921.
  • Yellow Clover, A Book of Remembrance, Dutton (New York, NY), 1922.
  • Little Robin Stay-Behind, and Other Plays in Verse for Children, Woman's Press (New York, NY), 1923.
  • The Pilgrim Ship, Woman's Press (New York, NY), 1926.
  • (Editor) Tom Thumb and Other Old-Time Fairy Tales, illustrated by Price, Rand, McNally (Chicago, IL), 1926.
  • America the Dream, Crowell
    Crowell
    -Surname:* A. Elmer Crowell, Decoy Carver* Andrew Crowell, Australian rules footballer* Angelo Crowell, American football player* Benedict Crowell, general* Benjamin Crowell, author and open-source/free textbook advocate...

     (New York, NY), 1930.
  • An Autobiography, in Brief, of Katharine Lee Bates, Enterprise Press (Falmouth, MA), 1930.
  • Selected Poems of Katharine Lee Bates, edited by Marion Pelton Guild, Houghton Mifflin
    Houghton Mifflin
    Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is an educational and trade publisher in the United States. Headquartered in Boston's Back Bay, it publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults.-History:The company was...

     (Boston, MA), 1930.
  • (Author of introduction) Helen Corke, The World's Family, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1930.
  • (Editor) Jack the Giant-Killer, Rand, McNally (Chicago, IL), 1937.
  • (Editor) Jack and the Beanstalk; also Toads and Diamonds, Rand, McNally (Chicago, IL), 1937.
  • America the Beautiful, illustrated by Neil Waldman, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1993.
  • O Beautiful For Spacious Skies, edited by Sara Jane Boyers, illustrated by Wayne Thiebaud, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA), 1994.


Contributor to Historic Towns of New England, edited by Lyman P. Powell, Putnam (New York, NY), 1898. Contributor to periodicals, sometimes under the pseudonym James Lincoln, including Atlantic Monthly, Congregationalist, Boston Evening Transcript
Boston Evening Transcript
The Boston Evening Transcript was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, published from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941.-Beginnings:...

, Christian Century, Contemporary Verse, Lippincott's and Delineator.

Collections of Bates's manuscripts are housed by the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Schlesinger Library
The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America is a research library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University. According to Nancy F...

, Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. It was also one of the Seven Sisters colleges. Radcliffe College conferred joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas beginning in 1963 and a formal merger agreement with...

, Cambridge, MA; Falmouth Historical Society, Falmouth, MA; Houghton Library
Houghton Library
Houghton Library is the primary repository for rare books and manuscripts at Harvard University. It is part of the Harvard College Library within the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Houghton is located on the south side of Harvard Yard, next to Widener Library.- History :Harvard's first...

, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; Wellesley College Archives, Wellesley, MA.

Further reading

  • Dorothy Burgess, Dream and Deed: The Story of Katharine Lee Bates (Norman, Oklahoma
    Norman, Oklahoma
    Norman is a city in Cleveland County, Oklahoma, United States, and is located south of downtown Oklahoma City. It is part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, Norman was to have 110,925 full-time residents, making it the third-largest city in Oklahoma and the...

    : University of Oklahoma Press
    University of Oklahoma Press
    The University of Oklahoma Press is the publishing arm of the University of Oklahoma. It has been in operation for over seventy-five years, and was the first university press established in the American Southwest. It was founded by William Bennett Bizzell, the fifth president of the University of...

    , 1952)
  • entry on Katharine Lee Bates in Notable American Women : the modern period : a biographical dictionary, edited by Barbara Sicherman, Carol Hurd Green with Ilene Kantrov, Harriette Walker (Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
    Harvard University Press
    Harvard University Press is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. In 2005, it published 220 new titles. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. Its current director is William P...

    , 1980)
  • Judith Schwarz, "Yellow Clover: Katharine Lee Bates and Katharine Coman," Frontiers: A Journal of Women's Studies, 4:1 (Spring 1979), pp 59–67
  • Almanac of Famous People, sixth edition, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1998.
  • Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 71: American Literary Critics and Scholars, 1880–1900, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1988.
  • Encyclopedia of World Biography, Volume 2, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1998.
  • Gay and Lesbian Literature, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1998.
  • Vida Dutton Scudder
    Vida Dutton Scudder
    Vida Dutton Scudder was an American educator, writer, and welfare activist in the social gospel movement. She was one of the most prominent lesbian authors of her time.-Early life:...

    , On Journey, E.P. Dutton (New York, NY), 1937.
  • Drury, Michael, "Why She Wrote America's Favorite Song," Reader's Digest
    Reader's Digest
    Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...

    , July 1993, pp. 90–93.
  • Price, Deb. The Bellingham Herald
    The Bellingham Herald
    The Bellingham Herald is the only daily newspaper published in Bellingham, Washington, in the United States. It is currently owned by The McClatchy Company.-History:...

    , July 4, 1998: "Two women's love made 'America' Beautiful".
  • Christian Science Monitor, July 19, 1930.
  • The Dial
    The Dial
    The Dial was an American magazine published intermittently from 1840 to 1929. In its first form, from 1840 to 1844, it served as the chief publication of the Transcendentalists. In the 1880s it was revived as a political magazine...

    , January 16, 1912.
  • International Book Review, June 24, 1924.
  • The Nation
    The Nation
    The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...

    , November 30, 1918.
  • New York Times, July 14, 1918; August 17, 1930.

External links


(A site devoted to Miss Bates and Falmouth, Massachusetts)
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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