Katrina Trask Biography

Katrina Trask (May 30, 1853 – January 8, 1922), also known as Kate Nichols Trask, was an American author and philanthropist.

In 1878 she wrote Colorado Leaves and in 1888 the Chronicles of Yaddo. Her first book, Under King Constantine, was published anonymously in 1892. The book contains three long love poems and was written in three days under intense mental strain. She hid the poems away for years until finally persuaded by her husband to have them published. It went through five editions and beginning with the second edition she started identifying herself as Katrina Trask.

She published Free Not Bound (1903), a novel, and Night & Morning (1907), a narrative in blank verse; both were about love and marriage. In 1908 she wrote King Alfred’s Jewel a historical drama also in blank verse.

As an avid pacifist she wrote an antiwar play, In the Vanguard which appeared a year before World War I and went through eight editions and was performed by women clubs and church groups.