Linda Crane (1945-2000) was a poet, naturalist, shamanic practitioner, and Zen Buddhist. She was born in Winchester, grew up in Duxbury, and spent most of her adult life in Gloucester, Massachusetts. She published two books of poetry (as Linda Parker) during her lifetime: Graphite (Tansy Press 1980) and Seabirds (Fathom Press 1980). She shared her work generously, often typing up fresh copies of poems to give to friends, and was well known throughout the Cape Ann area for both her poetry readings and her shamanic practice. In the late 1990s she wrote and gave public performances of two operas: Spring and Anacaona, singing her own compositions. She left a group of manuscripts prepared for publication at her death. How Wild?, subtitled in manuscript She Speaks for Herself, is the first of these to be published by her estate.
