Ina Donna Coolbrith was an American poet, writer and librarian, prominent in the San Francisco Bay Area literary community. Called the “Sweet Singer of California”, she was the first California Poet Laureate, as well as the first poet laureate of any U.S. state.
Vanessa Bell was an English painter and interior designer, and the sister of Virginia Woolf. Exhibiting in London and Paris, she was one of the most celebrated painters of the Bloomsbury Group of English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists. Bell rejected the restrictions of Victorian narrative painting and the focus on what were considered ideal and aberrant qualities of femininity. She also designed book jackets for all of her sister Virginia’s books that were published by Virginia’s publishing company, the Hogarth Press. In 1932, Bell and Duncan Grant were commissioned to produce a dinner service for art historian Kenneth Clark. Overseen by Kenneth’s wife Jane Clark, they created the Famous Women Dinner Service – 50 plates painted with portraits of notable women throughout history.
Sylvia Townsend Warner was an English musicologist, novelist and poet, known for works such as the novels Lolly Willowes and After the Death of Don Juan, the poetry collection Whether a Dove or a Seagull and several short story collections. She also served in the Red Cross during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s.