This Bland collection contains copies of the poet's works with annotations in his own hand, Bland obituaries and a study of the poet's work (1951).

Henry Meade Bland (1863-1931), was a native California poet who succeeded Ina Coolbrith as the state's Poet Laureate (1929). After graduate study at the University of the Pacific (1890-91), Stanford (M.A. 1895) and the University of California, he taught English at San Jose State Teachers College(1899-1931), the forerunner of San Jose State University. During the early years of the twentieth century, Bland penned reviews of the works of California writers for Town and Country. He was the friend of Joaquin Miller (his daughter married Miller's grandson), Jack London, John Muir, Edwin Markham, and other California literary figures. His verse was published in Sierran Pan & Other Poems (1924) and six other volumes. His prose writings include Stevenson's California (1924) and Prose & Poetry for Children (1914). Edwin Markham wrote of Bland's poetry that it contained "lines of true beauty and mystic music." David Starr Jordan noted that Henry Meade Bland's poetry was "always sane."

Access Collection is open for research.