Anna Kalfus Spero

Anna Kalfus Spero
Spero, from a 1912 newspaper
Born
Anna Fredericka Kalmus

(1855-04-15)April 15, 1855
Shepherdsville, Kentucky, U.S.
DiedMay 1, 1947(1947-05-01) (aged 92)
Berkeley, California, U.S.
Other nameAnna DeJarnette
OccupationsPoet, suffragist, clubwoman

Anna Fredericka Kalfus DeJarnette Spero (April 15, 1855 – May 1, 1947)[1] was an American poet, clubwoman, and suffragist from Kentucky, based most of her life in San Jose and Berkeley, California.

Early life and education

Kalfus was born in Shepherdsville, Kentucky,[2] the daughter of Henry Frederick Kalfus and Elizabeth Virginia Birkhead Kalfus.[3][4] Her father was a physician.[5] She attended Louisville Girls High School,[6] and helped to organize the school's alumnae organization. Later she earned a degree from the University of California in 1912,[7] the same year that both of her children graduated from law school there.[4][8]

Career

Spero taught school in Elizabethtown and Louisville as a young woman.[9][6] In her forties, she moved to California with her children. She owned and edited a weekly paper in San Jose,[2] and was a member of the San Jose Women's Club, active in suffrage work in the 1890s.[10] At the Biennial of the General Federation of Women's Clubs in Denver in 1898,[11] Spero "gave a talk on Western journalism that electrified her audience," according to a report in The Delineator. "Perhaps nobody could remember much of her subject matter afterwards, but her wonderful flow of words, her enthusiasm and her powerful magnetism carried her audience by storm."[12]

In 1900 she attended the state convention of the California Woman's Suffrage Association. She chaired the poetry section of the California Writers Club and was a member of the Berkeley Short Story Club[13][14] and the Civic League of Oakland. She was a life member of the National Education Association.[6][15]

Publications

Spero was considered a noted California woman poet, alongside Ina Coolbrith, Ruth Comfort Mitchell, and Sara Bard Field.[16] Her poems and stories were published in national periodicals including Sunset, Overland Monthly,[17] The Wanderer,[18][19][20] and Poetry of Today.[21] Her 1931 collection Dreams in the Dark was described as "a record of dream consciousness", with verses based on her actual dreams.[22] "I sleep with pencil and paper under my pillow," she explained, "as at any stir the words go away."[23]

  • "A Translation in Souls" (1898, short story)[24]
  • "A Son of Comptche" (1904, short story)[25]
  • The Honor of Breath Feather (1914, fiction)[1]
  • "The Rustle in the House", "In My Dreams", "The Moon of Autumn Leaves", and "Illusion" (1924, poems)[17][18][19][20]
  • "The Delayed Knight", "Lines to a Western Woman", "In Florida", "Source" (1925, poems)[26]
  • "Upon a Height" and "A Day of Life" (1927, poems)[27][28]
  • "Cloudy" (1929, poem)[21]
  • Dreams in the Dark (1931, poetry collection)[22]
  • "To a Lizard in the Desert", "The Wind is Sweet", "I'd Follow Blue-Birds", and "Source" (1932, poems)

Personal life

Kalfus married James Silas DeJarnette in 1887; they had two children. Her second husband was reporter Schuyler Colfax Spero; they married in 1896.[4] Her son died in 1914. She died in 1947, at the age of 92, in Berkeley.[3][1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Anna Kalfus Spero". The Berkeley Gazette. May 3, 1947. p. 2. Retrieved April 15, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 "Former Shepherdsville Girl Heard From". The Pioneer-News. February 26, 1932. p. 1. Retrieved April 15, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 Riles, Kiana T. "Biographical Sketch of Anna Kalfus Spero" Alexander Street.
  4. 1 2 3 La Grange County from History of Northeast Indiana. The Bookmark. 1920. p. 462.
  5. ↑ "Henry Frederick Kalfus, M.D." Bullitt County History. Retrieved April 14, 2026.
  6. 1 2 3 Hitt, Neil (July 3, 1939). "She's a Veteran of NEA; 84 Years Young". San Francisco Chronicle. p. 3. Retrieved April 15, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ Blue and Gold: Being a Record of the College Year. 1912. p. 103.
  8. ↑ "Mother, Daughter, and Son to Graduate at Same Time". The Cincinnati Post. May 31, 1912. p. 5. Retrieved April 15, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "Birthday Tea". Hardin County Enterprise. April 19, 1938. p. 9. Retrieved April 15, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ "Equality Club". The Peninsula Times Tribune. April 28, 1899. p. 1. Retrieved April 15, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ "Thursday's Sessions". The Club Woman. 2 (5): 145. August 1898 – via Internet Archive.
  12. ↑ Winslow, Helen M. (October 1898). "Club Women and Club Life". The Delineator. 52 (4): 474.
  13. ↑ "Friends Honor Poetess on 77th Birthday". Oakland Tribune. April 20, 1932. p. 6. Retrieved April 15, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Club Holds Annual Banquet". The Berkeley Gazette. June 3, 1912. p. 5. Retrieved April 16, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ States, National Education Association of the United (1917). Fiftieth anniversary yearbook and list of active members of the National Educational Association.
  16. ↑ "Reviews and Notes". California Historical Society Quarterly. 5 (1): 91. March 1926.
  17. 1 2 Spero, Anna Kalfus (July 1924). "The Rustle in the House". Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine: 317.
  18. 1 2 Spero, Anna Kalfus (May 1924). "In My Dreams". The Wanderer. 2 (5): 69–70.
  19. 1 2 Spero, Anna Kalfus (October 1924). "The Moon of Autumn Leaves". The Wanderer. 2 (10): 139–140.
  20. 1 2 Spero, Anna Kalfus (August 1924). "Illusion". The Wanderer. 2 (8): 100.
  21. 1 2 Poetry of To-day. Erskine MacDonald. 1929. p. 92.
  22. 1 2 Everett, Elizabeth Abbey (December 1931). "Dreams in the Dark (review)". Out West Magazine. 89 (12): 23 – via Internet Archive.
  23. ↑ "Dream Poetess Tells Secret". Oakland Tribune. January 22, 1931. p. 19. Retrieved April 15, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ↑ Spero, Anna Kalfus (May 1898). "A Translation of Souls". Pearls. 1 (2): 37–41 – via Internet Archive.
  25. ↑ Spero, Anna Kalfus (December 1904). "A Son of Comptche". Sunset. 14 (2): 145–149 – via Internet Archive.
  26. ↑ Whitaker, Herman (1925). West Winds. pp. 172–176.
  27. ↑ The American Literary Association Anthology, 1927. 1927. p. 138.
  28. ↑ Spero, Anna Kalfus (May 1927). "A Day of Life". Overland Monthly. 85 (5): 146 – via Internet Archive.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.