UVa hired Kohler in 1942 to serve as the managing editor of the university's Virginia Quarterly Review, selecting her to succeed Archibald Shepperson in part because, as a woman, she was not subject to the draft that was sending many of the United States' men overseas to fight in World War II, making her "war-proof".
During her tenure she reviewed an estimated 90,000 manuscripts, selecting from among them and publishing many previously unknown authors, including Hayden Carruth, Nadine Gordimer, and Adrienne Rich.
[1][3] Female editors of literary magazines were very rare during her time, and it was her role as a pathbreaker that led to her award of an honorary doctorate from Smith College in 1971.
Kohler was also the first female Phi Beta Kappa at UVa, and one of the first women to receive a doctorate from the university.
[4] She died on September 15, 2008, of congestive heart failure in her home in Charlottesville, Virginia, one day before what would have been her 100th birthday.