Claude C. (Claude Carlos) Washburn

Born in Mankato, Minnesota, on October 3, 1883, he grew up in Duluth and later attended prep schools before graduating from Harvard in 1905. After college, he spent several years in Europe, where he wrote poems, short stories, essays, and plays.

Washburn published a wide range of work, including Pages from the Book of Paris, the novel Gerald Northrop in 1914, Verses in 1915, Order in 1920, and Opinions in 1926. Sources describing his career consistently identify him as an American poet and novelist, and note that Italy and France were especially important parts of his adult life.

He continued traveling in Europe during the First World War, though he also returned often to Duluth, which appears in some of his writing. He died in Duluth on August 10, 1926, after contracting a streptococcic infection. His surviving papers, including manuscripts, correspondence, and personal effects, are preserved at the University of Minnesota.