Robert Frost

Associated the world over with New England, Robert Lee Frost was born in San Francisco, California, on 26 March 1874, to Isabelle Moodie and William Prescott Frost Jr. and spent his boyhood there until his father’s death in 1885. The family moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts, where Frost entered the third grade. A talented student, Frost edited the Lawrence High School Bulletin, where he published his first poem, “La Noche Triste.” In 1892, he shared valedictory honors with Elinor White. He attended Dartmouth but withdrew in December. Frost pressed Elinor to marry him, but she insisted on remaining at St. Lawrence until graduation. In 1894, Frost published “My Butterfly: An Elegy” in The Independent. In 1895, he and Elinor were married, and their first child, Elliott, was born in 1896. Frost entered Harvard in 1897 but withdrew in 1899. Later that year, daughter Lesley was born. In 1900, Elliott died, and the Frosts moved to a farm in Derry, New Hampshire. That same year Frost’s mother died. Between 1902 and 1905, son Carol and daughters Irma and Marjorie were born as Frost raised chickens, contributed articles to poultry magazines, and wrote poetry. Daughter Elinor was born but died in 1907. The family later moved to Derry Village, where Frost taught at Pinkerton Academy. In 1912, the Frosts moved to England, where Frost devoted himself to writing and seeking a publisher. He also met leading literary figures, including W.B. Yeats and Ezra Pound. David Nutt published A Boy’s Will (1913) and North of Boston (1914). Both received favorable reviews by Pound and Edward Thomas, who became Frost’s closest friend until Thomas’s untimely death. Frost returned to the United States a recognized poet, and his volumes were republished by Henry Holt in New York. After his return to the United States, Frost taught at various institutions, including Amherst College and the University of Michigan, and began his association with Middlebury’s Bread Loaf School of English and Writers’ Conference. Frost received his first Pulitzer Prize for New Hampshire (1923). After publishing West-Running Brook (1928), he won Pulitzers for Collected Poems (1930) and A Further Range (1936). During that time, Frost’s sister died, followed by his wife in 1938. The next two decades brought acclaim and more tragedy. Frost continued “barding around,” Kathleen Morrison continued serving as his secretary, he won an unprecedented fourth Pulitzer for A Witness Tree (1942), and he published Steeple Bush (1947) and Complete Poems (1949). However, Carol committed suicide, and Irma was committed to a mental hospital. In the 1950s, the poet received honorary doctorates from Oxford and Cambridge, became Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, received a Congressional gold medal, and delivered “The Gift Outright” at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. He published In the Clearing in 1962 and received the Bollingen Prize in 1963, shortly before his death in Boston on 29 January.