Jakobína Johnson was a leading woman poet of the large Western Icelandic community of North America. An intelligent, lyrical poet, she was also an outstanding translator, who rendered Icelandic poems into English. Her literary output was quite small in volume, but it appeared as her poetic skills matured and as she received corresponding encouragement from her contacts in North America and Iceland.

Jakobína Johnson was born on 24 October 1883 on the farmstead Hólmavad in Þingeyjarsysla, northern Iceland. Her parents were Sigurbjörn Jóhannsson, from Fótaskinn, who was born in 1839, and his second wife, María Jónsdóttir, from Höskuldstadir in Reykjadal, born in 1860. Jakobína was a descendent of poets, intellectuals, and bishops. Sigurbjörn, her father, was a renowned alþyduskáld (popular poet or verse...