author
Virginia Carter Castleman
1864–1937
A Virginia writer and librarian, she brought local history and literary polish together in work that reflects a deep interest in the American past. She is best remembered for Pocahontas: A Poem and for her ties to early library work in Herndon and Philadelphia.
1 Audiobook
Pocahontas: A Poem
by Virginia Carter Castleman
About the author
Born in Herndon, Virginia, in 1864, she studied first at the Edgeworth Institute in Baltimore and later at Drexel's library school, graduating in 1899. Afterward she worked as a book cataloger at the University of Pennsylvania and also taught in Washington, D.C., and Boise, Idaho.
Her writing is now chiefly associated with Pocahontas: A Poem, published in 1907, and with Roger of Fairfield, published in 1906. The surviving record also connects her to the Fortnightly Club in Herndon, where she helped organize and catalog books during the club's early library efforts.
She died in 1937. Although not widely known today, her life sits at an interesting crossroads of literature, education, and the growth of library culture in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century.