Kate Scott Turner (March 12, 1831 in Cooperstown, New York – 1917) was an American poet and a friend of poetess Emily Dickinson.[1] She was also known as Kate Anthon.
Catherine Mary ("Kate") Scott was the daughter of Henry Scott of Cooperstown, New York.[2] She attended the Utica Female Seminary, where in 1848 she met Susan Gilbert, who married Emily Dickinson's brother Austin Dickinson.[3] The women remained friends until Susan's death[4] in 1913.[5]
In 1855, she married Campbell Ladd Turner, who died in 1857 of tuberculosis.[2][4] Turner was acquainted with Emily Dickinson through Susan, and they remained so until the mid-1860s.[3] Turner married for a second time in 1866 to John Hone Anthon, who died eight years later. She died in 1917 in England, having lived most of her life outside of the United States.[2]
She met Emily Dickinson in 1859.[2] From that time until about 1862, Dickinson sent her four poems.[3] One poem was sent with a pair of garters that Dickinson had knitted for her:
When Katie walks, this simple pair accompany her side,
When Katie runs unwearied they follow on the road,
When Katie kneels, their loving hands still clasp her pious knee —
Ah! Katie! Smile at Fortune, with two so knit to thee!— Emily Dickinson[3]