Elizabeth Coatsworth
1893 – 1986
Background: Biographical Information & Connection to Maine (3)
Click here to read insights into Elizabeth Coatsworth by her daughter Kate Barnes. Kate was Maine’s First Poet Laureate, appointed in 1995 by then-Governor Angus King. “She was so intelligent, so very kind,” says Kate, “and more fun to be with than anyone else in the world. She was always so very alive, so vital — and you could never forget her eyes: dark, dark eyes, with the bright intensity of a falcon’s.” (4)
“There is a common thread running through all of Coatsworth’s writing though, and that is the reverence she had for her home state of Maine.” (5)
Virtual Visit: Tea with the author Elizabeth Coatsworth at her home Chimney Farm (6)
Click here to read details of Chimney House as a landmark on the National Register of Historic Places (7)
Click here to get a special peek of Chimney Farms from a recent drive Mrs. DeCamilla made to Nobleboro!
Elizabeth Coatsworth and her husband, writer and naturalist Henry Beston, at their beloved home, Chimney Farm in Nobleboro, Maine (8)
“Key to appreciating the writings of Henry Beston and Elizabeth Coatsworth Beston is the understanding of the extent to which Chimney Farm figures into their nature writing, their historical fiction, their poetry, and their neighborhood chronicles.” (9)
Click here to see what’s happening at Chimney Farm today (10)
Click here to take a peek inside Elizabeth Coatsworth’s award-winning children story about a poor Japanese artist and the cat who brings him good fortune; the story was inspired by the author’s travels to around the world as a child and teen. (11)
Click here for a selection of 26 poems by Elizabeth Coatsworth (12)
Click here to read from Elizabeth Coatsworth’s biography Personal Geography: 1. Introduction page xi; 2. My Mother’s Mirror, page 18; 3. Writing, page 185 (Create a free account at the Internet Archive to borrow and read this book online) (13)
Click here to read 6 of Elizabeth Coatsworth’s most famous poems (14)
Advertisement appearing in the Boston Globe on July 24, 1947 for Elizabeth Coatsworth’s new book Maine Ways. (15)
Primary Source: A handwritten letter from Elizabeth Coatsworth to a friend in 1950. “Dear Mrs. Huntington, Such a pretty party and such a nice party! We all had a lovely time and one that we shall remember like a poem. Everything about your garden touches the imagination”. (16)
Coatsworth’s New York Times obituary appearing in the Des Moines Register in 1986 (17)
The family cemetery at Chimney Farm in Nobleboro, Maine (18)
Find-a-Grave Cemetery Record (19)
