In 1893 a young professor of English at the newly established Wellesley College took a train out west to teach summer school in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She was a scholar to earn her living, but at heart she was a poet and idealist. That summer the beauty and grandeur of the nation's physical blessings—its mountains, fertile prairies, shining seas—forcefully moved her. She composed a poem, an expression of hope for America's spiritual life, that has stirred generations ever since.

Here is an engaging picture-book account of Katharine Lee Bates and the trip that gave rise to "America the Beautiful." Writing with grace and humor, Barbara Younger captures the essence of this nineteenth-century woman of poetry, duty, and whimsy. Stacey Schuett's expansive illustrations, glowing with color, bring readers to canyon and sky, prairie and mountain, and to the fun Katharine had on her journey.

From the dust jacket