Poet. She was an American poet who was the third person to be named a fellow to the Texas Institute of Letters in 1952. In 1938, she was elected the first woman president of TIL. She was the daughter of Kate Florence Montgomery Wilson and William Thomas Murphey Wilson. She attended the Little Rock Academy and Ouachita Baptist College. When she was nineteen, she enrolled at the University of Chicago where she studied under poet William Vaughn Moody and novelist Robert Herrick. For two years during the long term, she taught at a girl's school in Bristol, Virginia. The final "e" in her first name was added in 1893 to help avert mistakes in gender, but her name continued to be mistaken for a man's name throughout her life by fans and reviewers. Her first poem was published in 1903 in "Harper's" magazine, which followed with becoming the most frequently published poet in the "Yale Review." A volume of her poems, "Dreamers on Horseback," was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Some of her other titles include "Star of the Wilderness," "Two Little Texans," and "Family Style." Although known for her poetry, her novel "Family Style" has a plot centered on the impact of the East Texas oil boom on a small community. Another novel, "Star of the Wilderness," is set against the backdrop of the Texas Revolution. The State Textbook Commission adopted for public schools her children's history reader, "The Texas Flag Primer." In 1897, her father's wholesale grocery business in Little Rock failed and her father decided to start a grain and feed company in Nacogdoches causing the family to relocate. She first came to Nacogdoches in 1901. She was supporting herself with her earnings shortly before she married Thomas Ellis Baker, a Nacogdoches banker. They had two children, Thomas Wilson, born in 1908, and Charlotte born in 1910. Her son became a banker and the daughter, now Charlotte Baker Montgomery, became an author and illustrator of numerous children's books and two adult novels. Baker was a popular professor at Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College starting in 1924 for ten years. The lyrics to the college's first school song were written by her. A vast amount of personal papers is held by the Ralph W. Steen Library at Stephen F. Austin State University. A State of Texas Historical marker to honor her was erected on the college's campus in 2007. A large statue of Karle Wilson Baker sitting while reading a book was erected in front of her home in Nacogdoches.