Biography Celia Thaxter

Poet Biography

Celia Thaxter was born on 29th June 1836 in New Hampsire, USA.
When she was a child her father, Thomas Laighton, took her to the Isle of Shoals where she then stayed for most of her life. When she was a girl her father opened a guest house at which some of New England's finest writers stayed.

It is therefore ot that surprising that Thaxter grew up to become a poet. Her collections including: Among the Isles of Shoals (1873, Poems (1871), Driftweed (1878), Poems for Children(1884) and The Cruise of the Mystery, and other Poems (1886).

Thaxter and her work are now linked to what has become known as 'ecofeminism'. Her poems and other essays and articles often considering the connections between gender and the natural world. According to reviewer Sarah Klein Thaxter's "...creative sensibility and her spiritual awareness combined with a moral imperative and an acute awareness of her historical moment and its dilemmas. She made important connections in her writing, and her work represents a substantial voice in late 19th century New England."

Celia married Levi Licoln Thaxter in 1851 and she died in 1894.