JACOBSEN, Josephine (Winder) 1908-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born August 19, 1908, in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada; died of kidney failure July 9, 2003, in Cockeysville, MD. Author. Jacobsen was a poet and short-story author who once served as consultant to the Library of Congress, which was the equivalent of the current post of U.S. poet laureate. Although she did not attend college, she became a prolific author of fiction, verse, and literary criticism, winning critical acclaim for all these efforts. However, she gained the most attention for her poetry, which ranges from traditional forms to free verse. Her staunch Catholicism imbues much of her poetry, which is often concerned with the mysteries of being human and the relationships between the physical and spiritual worlds. She wrote in her spare time when not busy raising her family, and did not have any type of formal job until she became the Library of Congress poetry consultant from 1971 to 1973 and honorary consultant in American letters from 1973 to 1979. Honored with two Prairie Schooner awards for fiction, a National Book Award nomination for The Shade-Seller: New and Selected Poems (1974), several honorary degrees, and other awards, Jacobsen completed eleven poetry collections, including The Human Climate: New Poems (1953), Adios, Mr. Moxley (1986), and In the Crevice of Time: New and Collected Poems (1995). She also wrote such short story collections as A Walk with Raschid and Other Stories (1978) and What Goes without Saying: Collected Stories of Josephine Jacobsen (1996), as well as several critical works and contributions to anthologies.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 102, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1998.

Contemporary Poets, seventh edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 2001.

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 244: American Short-Story Writers since World War II, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2001.

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, July 12, 2003, section 2, p. 11.

Los Angeles Times, July 12, 2003, p. B20.

New York Times, July 12, 2003, p. A21.

Washington Post, July 12, 2003, p. B6.