The Letters of Robert Frost. Volume 1 The Letters of Robert Frost: 1886–1920

Pensive, mercurial, and often funny, the private Robert Frost remains less appreciated than the public poet. __The Letters of Robert Frost,__ the first major edition of the correspondence of this complex and subtle verbal artist, includes hundreds of unpublished letters whose literary interest is on a par with Dickinson, Lowell, and Beckett. Main Description:One of the acknowledged giants of twentieth-century American literature, Robert Frost was a public figure much celebrated in his day. Although his poetry reached a wide audience, the private Frost--pensive, mercurial, and often very funny--remains less appreciated. Following upon the publication of Frost's notebooks and collected prose, The Letters of Robert Frost is the first major edition of the poet's written correspondence. The hundreds of previously unpublished letters in these annotated volumes deepen our understanding and appreciation of this most complex and subtle of verbal artists. Volume One traverses the years of Frost's earliest poems to the acclaimed collections North of Boston and Mountain Interval that cemented his reputation as one of the leading lights of his era. The drama of his personal life--as well as the growth of the audacious mind that produced his poetry--unfolds before us in Frost's day-to-day missives. These rhetorical performances are at once revealing and tantalizingly evasive about relationships with family and close friends, including the poet Edward Thomas. We listen in as Frost defines himself against contemporaries Ezra Pound and William Butler Yeats, and we witness the evolution of his thoughts about prosody, sound, style, and other aspects of poetic craft. In its literary interest and sheer display of personality, Frost's correspondence is on a par with the letters of Emily Dickinson, Robert Lowell, and Samuel Beckett. The Letters of Robert Frost holds hours of pleasurable reading for lovers of Frost and modern American poetry Volume 3. "During the period covered here, Robert Frost was close to the height of his powers. If Volume 2 covered the making of Frost as America's poet, in Volume 3 he is definitively made. These were also, however, years of personal tribulation. The once-tight Frost family broke up as marriage, illness, and work scattered the children across the country. In the case of Frost's son Carol, both distance and proximity put strains on an already fractious relationship. But the tragedy and emotional crux of this volume is the death of Frost's youngest daughter, Marjorie. Frost's correspondence from those dark days is a powerful testament to the difficulty of honoring the responsibilities of a poet's eminence while coping with the intensity of a parent's grief. Volume 3 also sees Frost responding to the crisis of the Great Depression, the onset of the New Deal, and the emergence of totalitarian regimes in Europe, with wit, canny political intelligence, and no little acerbity. All the while, his star continues to rise: he wins a Pulitzer for Collected Poems in 1931 and will win a second for A Further Range, published in 1936, and he is in constant demand as a public speaker at colleges, writers' workshops, symposia, and dinners. Frost was not just a poet but a poet-teacher; as such, he was instrumental in defining the public functions of poetry in the twentieth century. In the 1930s, Frost lived a life of paradox, as personal tragedy and the tumults of politics interwove with his unprecedented achievements."-- Dust jacket flap Pensive, Mercurial, And Often Funny, The Private Robert Frost Remains Less Appreciated Than The Public Poet. The Letters Of Robert Frost, The First Major Edition Of The Correspondence Of This Complex And Subtle Verbal Artist, Includes Hundreds Of Unpublished Letters Whose Literary Interest Is On A Par With Dickinson, Lowell, And Beckett. Volume 1. 1886-1920. Introduction -- The Early Years (september 1886 -- July 1912) -- England In The Grip Of Frost (beaconsfield, September 1912 -- March 1914) -- This Quiet Corner Of A Quiet Country (gloucestershire, May 1914 -- February 1915) -- Making It In America (february 1915-december 1917) -- Amherst (january 1917 -- February 1920) -- Biographical Glossary Of Correspondents -- Chronology: 1874 -- February 1920. Volume 2. 1920-1928. Edited By Donald Sheehy, Mark Richardson, Robert Faggen. Volume 2 Edited By Donald Sheehy, Mark Richardson, Robert Bernard Hass, And Henry Atmore. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. Volume 2. "In the years covered here, publication of Selected Poems, New Hampshire, and West-Running Brook enhanced Robert Frost's stature in America and abroad, and the demands of managing his career--as public speaker, poet, and teacher--intensified. A good portion of the correspondence is devoted to Frost's appointments at the University of Michigan and Amherst College, through which he played a major part in staking out the positions poets would later hold in American universities. Other letters show Frost helping to shape the Bread Loaf School of English and its affiliated Writers' Conference. We encounter him discussing his craft with students and fostering the careers of younger poets. His ??observations (and reservations) about educators are illuminating and remain pertinent. And family life--with all its joys and sorrows, hardships and satisfactions--is never less than central to Frost's concerns" -- dust jacket flap Contents Preface Abbreviations Editorial Principles Introduction The Early Years “En gland in the Grip of Frost” “This Quiet Corner of a Quiet Country” Making It in America Amherst Biographical Glossary of Correspondents Chronology: 1874– February 1920 Acknowledgments Index