A Guide to the Papers of Robert Frost, 1873-1981 Frost, Robert, Papers 6261, etc.

A Guide to the Papers of Robert Frost, 1873-1981

A Collection in
The Clifton Waller Barrett Library
Special Collections
The University of Virginia Library
Accession Number 6261, etc.


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Processed by: Special Collections Staff

Repository
Special Collections, University of Virginia Library
Accession number
6261 through 6261-bi
Title
Papers of Robert Frost 1873-1981
Physical Characteristics
This collection consists of ca. 1000 items.
Language
English

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers of Robert Frost, in the Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Accession #6261, etc., Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was acquired ca. 1960-1997 through multiple gifts of Clifton Waller Barrett, Lesley Frost Francis Ballentine, and Lesley Lee Francis.

Biographical/Historical Information

Robert Lee Frost (born March 26, 1874 in San Francisco, Calif., died January 29, 1963 in Boston Mass.), was one of America's leading 20th-century poets and a four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

The Frost family moved to Massachusetts in 1885, following Frost's father's death. Frost graduated from Lawrence High School in 1892 and entered Dartmouth College, where he remained less than one semester. Frost returned to Massachusetts where he taught school and worked in a mill and as a newspaper reporter. In 1894 he sold "My Butterfly: an Elegy" to The Independent, a New York literary journal. He married Elinor White in 1895. From 1897 to 1899 he attended Harvard College as a special student but left without a degree. Over the next ten years he wrote (but rarely published) poems, operated a farm in Derry, New Hampshire (purchased for him by his paternal grandfather), and supplemented his income by teaching at Derry's Pinkerton Academy.

In 1912, at the age of 38, he sold the farm and used the proceeds to take his family to England, where he could devote himself entirely to writing. His efforts to establish himself and his work were almost immediately successful. A Boy's Will was accepted by a London publisher and brought out in 1913, followed a year later by North of Boston. Favorable reviews on both sides of the Atlantic resulted in American publication of the books by Henry Holt and Company, Frost's primary American publisher, and in the establishing of Frost's transatlantic reputation.

The Frosts returned to the United States in February 1915 and landed in New York City two days after the U.S. publication of North of Boston, the first of his books to be published in America. Sales of that book and of A Boy's Will enabled Frost to buy a farm in Franconia, N.H.; to place new poems in literary periodicals and publish a third book, Mountain Interval (1916); and to embark on a long career of writing, teaching, and lecturing. In 1924 he received a Pulitzer Prize in poetry for New Hampshire (1923). He received the Pulitzer again for Collected Poems (1930), A Further Range (1936), and A Witness Tree (1942). Over the years he received an unprecedented number and range of literary, academic, and public honors.

Scope and Content

The collection contains manuscripts of poetry, plays, addresses, essays, notebook, a workbook, and other writings by Frost. Many are fair copies written for Earle Bernheimer, Clifton Waller Barrett and others. With these are some proof and other publication materials for the Limited Editions Club volume of The Complete Poems of Robert Frost.

Manuscripts by the Frost children include notebooks of poetry and short stories by Lesley, Carol, and Irma Frost, and "The Bouquet " magazine by the Frost children and English friends.

Manuscripts about Robert Frost include notes or articles by John T. Bartlett, Margaret Bartlett, Elizabeth Jennings, and Dorothy Judd Hall; as well as page proof of Sidney Cox's A Swinger of Birches and a typescript of "The constant symbol " by Clifton Waller Barrett.

Frost family correspondence includes letters from Robert and Elinor to daughter Lesley Frost Francis, and grandson William Prescott Frost, as well as correspondence of granddaughter Lesley Lee Francis. There are also five letters of Frost's parents William Prescott Frost, Jr. and Isabelle Moodie Frost.

Letters to Earle J. Bernheimer discuss his writing, health, family affairs, and Bernheimer's Frost collection. Letters to Robert S. Hillyer touch on readings, honors, and Hillyer's poetry. Lengthy letters to former student John T. Bartlett discuss family and work. Letters from English friends during World War I mention the English war effort.

Other correspondents include Clifton Waller and Cornelia Barrett, William Stanley Braithwaite, LeBaron R. Briggs, Abbie Farwell Brown, Cyril Clemens, Padraic Colum, Lewis Henry Cohn, Grace Hazard Conkling, Aaron Copland, Clarence R. Decker, George Dillon, Frank D. Fackenthal, Wilfred Wilson Gibson, Vera Harvey, J. J. Lankes, Edward Connery Lathem, John Masefield, Harry Meacham, Harold Monro, Kathleen Morrison, Thomas B. Mosher, Robert S. Newdick, William Jay Smith, R. W. Stallman, Will Orton Tewson, Lawrance R. Thompson, Wade Van Dore, and John Hall Wheelock.

Miscellaneous material includes programs; playbills; invitations; brochures; two pencil drawings by Frost; a painting "The sound of the trees Robert Frost" by E. A. Anderson; reviews; clippings; maps; articles; photographs; and recordings of Robert Frost readings and of his memorial service with narration by Allen Tate.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in three series. Series I, Manuscripts, is arranged in three subseries: Subseries A. Manuscripts by Robert Frost, sub-arranged as Poetry, Plays and Other Writings; Subseries B. Manuscripts by the Frost Children; and Subseries C. Manuscripts by Others about Robert Frost.

Series II, Letters, is arranged in three subseries: Subseries A. Correspondence of Robert Frost, Elinor Frost and the Frost Family; Subseries B. Correspondence of Lesley Frost Ballantine; and, Subseries C. General Correspondence.

Series III, Miscellaneous, includes documents outside the scope of the first two series, printed materials, photographs and recordings.

Contents List

Series I. Manuscripts
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Series II. Letters
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Series III. Miscellaneous
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Prints -- Drawings and Sketches
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Printed
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Recordings
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Photographs
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