Karle Wilson Baker Desk

Born and raised in Arkansas, Karle (1878-1960) moved to Nacogdoches to join her parents after briefly attending the University of Chicago and Columbia University and working as a teacher.  As a child, Baker began a life-long practice of keeping a diary of daily events, writings, and sketches.  After her 1907 marriage to Nacogdoches native Thomas E. Baker, Karle continued to write and draw until she amassed a large number of published poems, short stories, essays, and articles.  As her two children, Thomas and Charlotte, grew up, Baker wrote a children’s book The Garden of Plynck published by Yale University Press and then she wrote The Texas Flag Primer, adopted by the state textbook committee from 1926 to 1929.  The next three decades were very busy years for Baker.  She taught at SFA for ten years, founded and then served as the President of the Texas Institute of Letters, became the first female fellow of the TIL in 1952, attended the University of California at Berkely, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for her book Dreamers on Horseback, and received an honorary Doctorate from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.  Her evocative poems, stories of early Texas, and whimsical drawings continue to fascinate readers and her statue on Mound Street embodies her life and work.