1632-1664
Biography
The daughter of a Puritan merchant in London, the Anglo-Welsh poet Katherine Philips (1632-1664) was married at 16 to a man 38 years older that her. One of the first women to gain recognition for poetry in England, she published under the name Orinda. At 32, she died of smallpox, and only two of her books were printed within her lifetime, though more of her work was released posthumously.