Florence Van Leer Earle Coates

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Florence Van Leer Earle Coates

Florence Van Leer Earle Coates, pre-1916

Born Florence Van Leer Earle

July 1, 1850
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.

Died April 6, 1927 (aged 76)

Hahnemann Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.

Occupation Poet
Philanthropist

Spouse William Nicholson

(m. 1872; died 1877)
Edward Hornor Coates
(m. 1879; died 1921)

Relatives George Hussey Earle Sr. (father)

George Howard Earle II (brother)
 Thomas Earle (grandfather)
Samuel Van Leer (great-grandfather)
Anthony Wayne (great-uncle)

Signature

Florence Van Leer Earle Nicholson Coates (July 1, 1850 – April 6, 1927) was an
American poet.

Contents

 1Biography
 2List of works
 3Gallery
 4References
 5External links

Biography[edit]
Coates was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the granddaughter of noted
abolitionist and philanthropist Thomas Earle, and American Revolutionary
War officer Samuel Van Leer, and the eldest daughter of Philadelphia lawyer George
Hussey Earle Sr. and Mrs. Frances ("Fanny") Van Leer Earle.[1][2] She gained fame
both at home and abroad for her works of poetry—nearly three-hundred of which
were published in literary magazines such as the Atlantic Monthly, Scribner's
Magazine, The Literary Digest, Lippincott's, The Century Magazine, and Harper's.
Many of her poems were set to music by composers such as Amy Beach (Amy
Cheney Beach), Clayton Johns, and Charles Gilbert Spross. She attended school in
New England under the instruction of abolitionist and teacher Theodore Dwight
Weld, and would further her education abroad at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in
Paris (Rue de Varenne),[3] and by studying music in Brussels under noted instructors
of the day.
Coates, pre-1894

Tulip-tree

"My remembrance of our last visit and of your tulip-trees and maples I shall never lose ..." —Matthew
Arnold, in a letter to Coates[4]

Literary and social critic Matthew Arnold both encouraged and inspired Coates's

writing of poetry. He was a guest at the Coates' Germantown home when his lecture
tours brought him to Philadelphia. Coates and Arnold first met in New York—during
Arnold's first visit and lecture tour of America—at the home of Andrew Carnegie,
"where they formed a lasting friendship".[5] The tour (which lasted from October 1883
to March 1884) brought Arnold to Philadelphia in December 1883, where he lectured
at Association Hall on the topics of the "Doctrine of the Remnant" and on "Emerson".
[6]
 His second visit and tour of America took place in 1886, and brought him to
Philadelphia in early June where he was again hosted by the Coates and spoke on
the topic of "Foreign Education" at the University of Pennsylvania chapel. [7] Arnold
wrote to Coates in 1887[8] and 1888[9] from his home at Pains Hill Cottage in Cobham,
Surrey, England describing his remembrance of and fondness for her "tulip-trees and
maples" at her Germantown home, "Willing Terrace". Rarely did Coates write or
publish prose work, but in April 1894 and again in December 1909, she dedicated
her pen to remembrances of her mentor in issues of The
Century and Lippincott's magazines respectively.
Between 1887 and 1912, Coates published over two dozen poems within The
Century Magazine. Her correspondence between Century editor Richard Watson
Gilder and others is documented at the New York Public Library Digital Collections
website.[10] In one letter dated March 12, 1905, Coates submitted to Mr. Gilder a
poem she wrote after being inspired by a photograph of Helen Keller holding a rose
which was published in The Century the previous January. Coates requested that, if
published, the poem also be accompanied by a copy of the photograph, and shared
that Ms. Keller sent word that she "accord[ed] [Coates] any permission" to use the
photo for that purpose. The poem, "Helen Keller with a Rose", was published in the
July 1905 issue—without the accompanying photograph, but with reference to the
issue in which it first appeared.
The Coates often spent their summer months in the Adirondacks, where they
maintained "Camp Elsinore"—their summer camp by the Upper St. Regis Lake. It
was there that they entertained, rested and escaped the humidity of Philadelphia
summers, welcoming friends such as Otis Skinner, Violet Oakley, Henry Mills Alden,
and Agnes Repplier.[11] In the early 1900s, the Coates seasonally opened their camp
to Anna Roosevelt Cowles ("Bamie")—the elder sister of Theodore Roosevelt.
Among Cowles's visitors during her stays at Elsinore was Alice Roosevelt, President
Theodore Roosevelt's daughter.[12] Many of Coates's nature poems were inspired by
the flora and fauna of the Adirondacks. Of her "spot in the mountains", Coates sings:
There's a cabin in the mountains, where the fare, dear,
      Is frugal as the cheer of Arden blest;
But contentment sweet and fellowship are there, dear,
      And Love, that makes the feast he honors—best!

Upper St. Regis Lake

 There's a lake upon

 the mountains...—FEC

In the March 1913 issue of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, noted anthologist and
poet, William Stanley Braithwaite (1878–1962), gives a detailed nine-page review of
Coates's poetry, relating how "she draws from the Olympian world figures that typify
some motive or desire in human conduct, and in the modern world the praise of men
and women, heroic in attainment or sacrifice; or laments events that effect social and
ethical progress, showing how beneficently she has brought her art, without
modifying in the least its abstract function as a creator of beauty and pleasure, into
the service of profound and vital problems".[13] Much of Coates's later published work
was written during the years spanning World War I and showcased her concern for
such "profound and vital problems" as her voice joined the chorus of "singers" in
support of American involvement in the war—evidenced in her privately published
pamphlet of war poetry, Pro Patria (1917). Coates also penned several other works
of fugitive verse, much of which is patriotic and war-related, describing the selfless
sacrifices made by soldiers and citizens alike for the cause of freedom and liberty.

Invitation to the 1895–96 Browning Society elections, the year Coates was elected president.

Coates was a founder of the Contemporary Club of Philadelphia in 1886; one of

twenty founders of the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania[14] in 1896—herself being a ninth generation descendant of Pilgrim John
Howland;[15] and twice president of the Browning Society of Philadelphia from 1895 to
1903, and again from 1907 to 1908. In 1915, Coates was unanimously elected poet
laureate of Pennsylvania by the state's Federation of Women's Clubs. [16]
Coates married William Nicholson in 1872. He died in 1877. On January 7, 1879,
she married Edward Hornor Coates at Christ Church in Philadelphia. Edward Coates
would eventually adopt Florence's daughter from her first marriage—Alice Earle
Nicholson (born October 21, 1873). Florence and Edward had one child together in
1881, but the baby—Josephine Wisner Coates[17]—died in infancy on March 5, 1881.
Edward Coates was president of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from
1890 to 1906. He died on December 23, 1921. In 1923, Florence Coates
presented The Edward H. Coates Memorial Collection to the Pennsylvania Academy
of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. The exhibition, representing French and American
schools,[18] included 27 paintings and 3 pieces of sculpture, and was displayed from
November 4, 1923 to January 10, 1924.
Coates died at Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia on April 6, 1927. She is buried
at the Church of the Redeemer churchyard in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania alongside
her husband and her brother George Howard Earle, Jr. and many of his
descendants, including his son, former Pennsylvania Governor, George Howard
Earle III—Florence's nephew.[19]