Poets

an American poet and author, born in Little Rock, Ark. to Kate Florence Montgomery Wilson and William Thomas Murphey Wilson. Educated at the University of Chicago, she studied under poet William Vaughn Moody and novelist Robert Herrick, and later went on to write her own poems and novels. In spite of the frequent mordant bits, her poems have visions of real beauty.

When Dr. Birdwell convinced Karle Wilson Baker to teach Contemporary Poetry for the summer sessions in 1924, he added to his faculty Texas' most prestigious poet. No other faculty member had the national recognition which she enjoyed; indeed, no other college or university in Texas could boast a poet of such acclaim. By 1924, Karle Wilson Baker had published her first four books at one of the nation's most important scholarly presses: the Yale University Press.

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Baker were personal friends with President and Mrs. Birdwell, and Dr. Birdwell recognized the value Baker would add to the faculty. She was sought after to lecture as a visiting speaker at most of the other universities in the state and at some across the nation. When the visiting Board of Regents came to dedicate Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College on April 30, 1924, they were honored at a luncheon sponsored by the Rotary Club. Dr. Birdwell chose Karle Wilson Baker to be one of the major speakers on the program. She read her newly created ballad, " Within the Alamo" and the poem she had written the year before honoring th..