Katrina Trask (May 30, 1853 – January 8, 1922), also known as
Kate Nichols Trask, was an American author and philanthropist.
Life account
She was born Kate Nichols in
Brooklyn, New York to George Little Nichols and Christina Mary Cole. Her father was a partner in a large importing firm.
She married
Spencer Trask, a prominent
Wall Street banker and financier, on November 12, 1874. Her husband was a director of several railroads and the president of the
Edison Illuminating Company of New York. He also helped plan and finance the reorganization of the
New York Times in 1896.
Katrina was the mother of four children, all of whom died in infancy or childhood. Spencer was killed in a railroad accident in 1909. In 1913 Katrina suffered several heart attacks and spent much of the remainder of her life developing and financing
Yaddo, an artists' community in
Saratoga Springs, New York, where she was an invalid.
On February 6, 1921, she married
George Foster Peabody. Katrina died less than a year later in 1922.
Career
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.
Works
- Under King Constantine 1892
- White Satin and Homespun 1896
- John Leighton, Jr.: a novel 1898
- Mors Et Victoria [a Drama] 1903
- The Mighty and the Lowly 1915
- Without the Walls: A Reading Play 1919
