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Robert Frost Collection

 Collection
Identifier: MA.00181

Scope and Contents

Literary manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings and magazine articles, ephemera, audio recordings and other materials related to Robert Frost's career as a poet and teacher. Many of Frost's letters in this collection were written to his colleagues, friends and students at the College. Correspondents include Joseph Blumenthal, G. R. Elliot, James Hayford, Otto Manthey-Zorn, Lawrance Thompson and George F. Whicher. Collection includes a large number of photocopies of original manuscripts and typescripts.

Dates

  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1920-1963
  • Creation: 1887-2008

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

There is no restriction on access to the Robert Frost Collection for research use. Particularly fragile items may be restricted for preservation purposes.

Conditions Governing Use

It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights represented in the collection. The estate of Robert Frost controls all publication of Frost's writings, photographs and appearances (in any media). Specific permission is required for publication in any format.

Biographical / Historical

Robert Frost was born in San Francisco on March 26, 1874. His father, William Prescott Frost, a journalist, died of tuberculosis in 1885. At age eleven he moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts with his mother Isabelle Moody Frost and sister Jeanie. He graduated from Lawrence High School in 1892, sharing honors as class valedictorian with Elinor Miriam White, who later became his wife. Frost enrolled at Dartmouth College and later, in 1897, at Harvard, but never earned a formal academic degree. After dropping out of college, he was a teacher, cobbler, editor and farmer. Frost's first published poem, "My Butterfly: An Elegy," appeared on November 8, 1894, in the New York newspaper The Independent. He and Elinor White were married in 1895. Through the next dozen years six children were born, two of whom died prematurely, leaving a surviving family of one son and three daughters: Carol, Lesley, Irma, and Marjorie.

From 1900 to 1909 Frost raised poultry on a farm in Derry, New Hampshire, and taught at the local school, Pinkerton Academy. In August 1912, he sold the property (newly owned) and moved the family to England, determined to establish himself in poetry in a country he thought was more receptive to his work. In England, he met and was influenced by Ezra Pound, Robert Graves, Rupert Brooke and Edward Thomas. Pound, in particular, was a supporter of Frost's work. In England he published A Boy's Will (1913) and shortly after that North of Boston (1914), both of which then came out in American editions. When he sailed back to the United States with his family in 1915, Frost's literary reputation was established.

A lecture he gave at the College in 1916 marked the beginning of a long relationship with the Amherst. (For a chronology, see "Robert Frost and Amherst College," below.)

By the 1920s Frost had become one of America's most celebrated poets. Each new book of poems (Mountain Interval (1916), New Hampshire (1923), West-Running Brook (1928), A Further Range (1936), A Witness Tree (1942), Steeple Bush (1947), and In the Clearing (1962)) met with unprecedented commercial sales and critical praise, including four Pulitzer Prizes. Frost resided in a succession of farms and houses in New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts (including Amherst). He frequently toured throughout the U.S. and in many foreign countries to do readings and to take up poet-in-residence appointments at a number of colleges and universities. His reading of the poem "The Gift Outright" at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961 was a memorable occasion.

Robert Frost died in Boston on January 29, 1963.

For a detailed chronology of Robert Frost's life, see Collected Poems, Prose and Plays by Robert Frost (N.Y.: Library of America, 1995).

Robert Frost and Amherst College

1916
First college readings: lectured at Amherst College April 8.
1917-1920
Professor of English
1917-1918
Taught Advanced Composition
1918-1919
Taught American Authors
1919-1920
Taught American Literature-19th Century Poets; Advanced Composition
1918
Awarded honorary M.A. by Amherst, May 2. This was the first honorary degree awarded Frost by any college or university.
1923-1925
Professor of English.
1923-1924
Taught Readings in English Literature
1924-1925
Taught Readings in Poetry, Drama, Essay and Short Story; Advanced Writing
1926
John Woodruff Simpson Lecturer (in residence for two weeks in January)
1926-1938
Professor of English on the John Woodruff Simpson Foundation endowment.
Held informal classes and readings and worked individually with students and teachers.
1931
"Education by Poetry" published in Amherst Graduates Quarterly.
1938
Memorial service held in Johnson Chapel on April 22 for Elinor Frost, who had died in Florida on March 20.
1948
Awarded honorary Litt.D. by Amherst on June 20.
1948
"Speaking of Loyalty" published in Amherst Graduates Quarterly.
1949-1963
Simpson Lecturer in Literature. Spent several weeks in Amherst each fall and spring, meeting with students and faculty and holding public readings.
1954
80th birthday celebration at Amherst College, March 26.
1962
September: Amherst announces its new library to be named for Frost, who is present at the announcement.
1962
Frost's last public appearance at Amherst (Parent's Day readings), October 20.
1963
Robert Frost dies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, January 29.
1963
Convocation for President John F. Kennedy and groundbreaking for the Robert Frost Library, October 26.
1965
Dedication of the Robert Frost Library, October 24.

Extent

26.25 Linear feet (6 records storage boxes, 30 archives boxes, 5 half archives boxes, 5 oversize boxes, 6 mapcase drawers)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Literary manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings and magazine articles, ephemera, audio recordings and other materials related to Robert Frost's career as a poet and teacher. Correspondents include Joseph Blumenthal, G. R. Elliot, James Hayford, Otto Manthey-Zorn, Lawrance Thompson and George F. Whicher.

Arrangement

The collection is organized into ten series:

  1. Series 1: Manuscripts, 1901-present
  2. Series 2: Printed Material, 1892-present
  3. Series 3: Audio-Visual Material, 1941-present
  4. Series 4: Awards and Honors, circa 1918-1974
  5. Series 5: Medals, 1930-1974
  6. Series 6: Objects, 1920s-1999
  7. Series 7: Photographs, 1887-2007
  8. Series 8: Images, 1923-2007
  9. Series 9: Robert Frost-related Collections and Organizations, 1945-present
  10. Series 10: Photocopies and Transcriptions

Immediate Source of Acquisition note

The major portion of the Robert Frost Collection was the gift of Jack W. C. Hagstrom, Class of 1955, who has continued to add to the collection. The medals in Series 5 were the gift of Frost's great-grandson, Robert L. Frost II. Additional materials were given by alumni and friends to the College. Some material was also purchased.

Related Materials

Related Material at Amherst College

  1. Frost books and separate publications are represented in the online library catalog. Many copies of Frost's own books are inscribed.
  2. Evidence of Frost's activities at Amherst College may be found in College publications such as The Amherst Student, the Amherst Graduates Quarterly, the Amherst Literary Magazine, and the College's annual catalog.
  3. Robert Frost Periodicals Collection. A limited selection of periodicals is included in the Robert Frost Collection, as well.
  4. The Christmas poems that Frost and his publisher sent each year are cataloged and may be found in the online library catalog by searching for call number: RFB [date of card].

Related Material at Other Institutions

  1. Major Collections: Robert Frost Collection, Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH; Robert Frost Collection, Jones Library, Amherst, MA; Robert Frost Papers, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, University of Virginia; Frederick G. Melcher Collection of Robert Frost, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia; Howe Library Manuscripts, Special and Area Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville
  2. Additional Collections: Robert Frost Collection, Howard Gotleib Archival Research Center at Boston University; Robert Frost Collection, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA; Robert Frost Papers, Milne Special Collections, University of New Hampshire; Robert Frost Collection, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library; Robert Frost Collection, San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA; Robert Frost Collection, Watkinson Library and Trinity College Archives, Trinity College, Hartford, CT; Robert Frost Collection, McCain Library, Agnes Scott College, Atlanta, GA; Julian W. Abernethy Collection, Special Collections, Middlebury College; Authors and Poets Collection, University of Maryland, Hornbake Library; Edna Hanley Byers Collection of Robert Frost, University Archives and Mennonite Historical Collections, Bluffton University; John A. Holmes Papers, Office of Digital Collections and Archives, Tufts University; Louis Mertins Collection of Robert Frost, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

Separated Materials

Note that many printed items, especially Christmas poems, that were previously included in the Frost manuscript collection have been removed and are now cataloged separately. To locate these items, search the Five College online library catalog for call number: RFB [date of card].

Abbreviations Used

The following abbreviations are used in this finding aid: TS = typescript; l. = leaf; MS = manuscript; s. = sheet; p. = page; env. = envelope

Status
Under Revision
Author
Floyd Merritt
Date
2008
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Amherst College Archives and Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Amherst College Archives & Special Collections
Robert Frost Library
61 Quadrangle Drive
Amherst MA 01002-5000
(413) 542-2299