U.S. Consultant in Poetry, 1971-1973
Josephine Jacobsen was born in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada in 1908. She published 12 poetry collections, including The Sisters: New and Selected Poems (1987), Collected Poems (1995), and In the Crevice of Time: New and Collected Poems (1995). She also published four collections of short stories. From 1971-1973, Jacobsen served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Her other honors included a fellowship from the Academy of American Poets and the Shelley Memorial Award for lifetime service to literature. She served as Honorary Consultant in American Letters to the Library of Congress from 1973-1979 and as vice president of the Poetry Society of America in 1978. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she served on the poetry committee of Folger Library and on the literature panel for the National Endowment of the Arts from 1979-1983. Jacobsen died in 2003.
Audio Recordings with Josephine Jacobsen
- Lee Anderson and Josephine Jacobsen reading and discussing their poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, Apr. 27, 1970
- From Anne to Marianne some women in American poetry: lecture by Josephine Jacobsen in the Coolidge Auditorium, May 1, 1972
- Josephine Jacobsen reading her poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, Oct. 2, 1972
- The instant of knowing: lecture by Josephine Jacobsen delivered in the Coolidge Auditorium, May 7, 1973
- An evening of readings to mark the retirement of Roy P. Basler: readings by Richard Eberhart, Josephine Jacobsen, Reed Whittemore, and Arnold Moss in the Coolidge Auditorium, Dec. 9, 1974
- Consultants’ reunion readings by thirteen Consultants in Poetry in the Coolidge Auditorium, March 6, 1978