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Robert Frost

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Image:Frost.jpg thumb|right|Robert Frost '''Robert Lee Frost''' (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an United States American poet. Frost received four Pulitzer Prizes among other honors.

Biography
Although he is most commonly associated with New England, Frost was born in San Francisco, California San Francisco to Isabelle Moodie, of Scotland Scottish birth, and William Prescott Frost, Jr., a descendant of a Devonshire. Frost who had sailed to New Hampshire in 1634. His father was a former teacher turned newspaper man, a hard drinker, a gambler, and a harsh disciplinarian, who fought to succeed in politics for as long as his health allowed. Frost lived in California until he was 11. After the death of his father, he moved with his mother and sister to eastern Massachusetts near his paternal grandparents. His mother joined the Swedenborgian church and had him baptized in it, but he left it as an adult. He grew up a city boy and published his first poem in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He attended Dartmouth College for just less then a semester, while there he joined the fraternity, Theta Delta Chi. He went back home to teach and work at various jobs including factory work and newspaper delivery. In 1894 he sold his first poem, ''My Butterfly'', to ''The Independent'' for $15. Proud of this accomplishment he asked Elinor Miriam White to marry him. They had graduated co-valedictorians from their high-school and had kept up their relationship. She refused, feeling that she wanted to finish school before they married. Frost felt that there was another man and went on a pointless journey to the Dismal Swamp in Virginia. He came back later that year and asked Elinor again, she accepted and they were married in December 1895. They taught school together until 1897. Frost then entered Harvard University for two years. He did well, but felt he had to return home due to his health and because his wife was expecting a second child. His grandfather purchased him a farm in New Hampshire. He stayed there for nine years and wrote many of the poems that would make up his first works. The attempt at poultry farming did not prove successful enough and he was forced to take up another job at Pinkerton Academy, a secondary school. Image:Young Frost.jpg thumb|left|Portrait of Frost c.1910-1920 In 1912 Frost sailed with his family to Glasgow , later settling in Beaconsfield, outside London. His first book of poetry, ''A Boy's Will'', was published the next year. In England he made some crucial contacts including Edward Thomas (poet) Edward Thomas (a member of the group known as the Dymock poets), T. E. Hulme, and Ezra Pound, who was the first American to write a (favourable) review of Frost's work. Frost wrote some of the best pieces of his work while living in England. Frost returned to America in 1915, bought a farm in Franconia, New Hampshire and launched a career of writing, teaching and lecturing. From 1916 to 1938, he was an English professor at Amherst College. He encouraged his writing students to bring the sound of the human voice to their craft. He recited his work, ''The Gift Outright'', at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961 and represented the United States on several official missions. He also became known for poems that include an interplay of voices, such as ''Death of the Hired Man''. Other highly acclaimed poems include ''Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening'', ''Mending Wall'', ''Nothing Gold Can Stay (poem) Nothing Gold Can Stay'', ''Birches'', ''After Apple Picking'', ''The Pasture'', ''Fire and Ice'', ''The Road Not Taken'', and ''Directive''. Frost won the Pulitzer Prize four times, a great achievement for a poet. On his death on January 29, 1963, Robert Frost was buried in the Old Bennington Cemetery, in Bennington (town), Vermont Bennington, Vermont. Harvard's 1965 alumni directory indicates his having received an honorary degree. Frost also received an honorary degree from Bates College. During his later years he spent summers in Ripton, Vermont and participated in the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference at Middlebury College. During his life, the Robert Frost Middle School in Fairfax, Virginia and the main library of Amherst College were named after him. In 1971, the Robert Frost Middle School in Rockville, Maryland was named after him.

Selected works

Poetry
* ''A Boy's Will'' (David Nutt, 1913; Holt, 1915). * ''North of Boston'' (David Nutt, 1914; Holt, 1914). * ''Mountain Interval'' (Holt, 1916). * ''Selected Poems'' (Holt, 1923) * ''New Hampshire'' (Holt, 1923; Grant Richards, 1924). * ''Several Short Poems'' (Holt, 1924). * ''Selected Poems'' (Holt, 1928). * ''West-Running Brook'' (Holt, 1929). * ''The Lovely Shall Be Choosers'' (Random House, 1929). * ''Collected Poems of Robert Frost'' (Holt, 1930; Longmans, Green, 1930). * ''The Lone Striker'' (Knopf, 1933). * ''Selected Poems: Third Edition'' (Holt, 1934). * ''Three Poems'' (Baker Library, Dartmouth College, 1935). * ''The Gold Hesperidee'' (Bibliophile Press, 1935). * ''From Snow to Snow'' (Holt, 1936). * ''A Further Range'' (Holt, 1936; Cape, 1937). * ''Collected Poems of Robert Frost'' (Holt, 1939; Longmans, Green, 1939) * ''A Witness Tree'' (Holt, 1942; Cape, 1943). * ''Steeple Bush'' (Holt, 1947). * ''Complete Poems of Robert Frost'', 1949 (Holt, 1949; Cape, 1951). * ''Hard Not To Be King'' (House of Books, 1951). * ''Aforesaid'' (Holt, 1954). * ''A Remembrance Collection of New Poems'' (Holt, 1959). * ''You Come Too'' (Holt, 1959; Bodley Head, 1964) * ''In the Clearing'' (Holt Rinehart & Winston, 1962) * ''The Poetry of Robert Frost'', (New York, 1969).

Plays
* ''A Way Out: A One Act Play'' (Harbor Press, 1929). * ''The Cowâ€™s in the Corn: A One Act Irish Play in Rhyme'' (Slide Mountain Press, 1929). * ''A Masque of Reason'' (Holt, 1945). * ''A Masque of Mercy'' (Holt, 1947).

Prose
* ''The Letters of Robert Frost to Louis Untermeyer'' (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1963; Cape, 1964). * ''Robert Frost and John Bartlett: The Record of a Friendship'', by Margaret Bartlett Anderson (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1963). * ''Selected Letters of Robert Frost'' (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1964). * ''Interviews with Robert Frost'' (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1966; Cape, 1967). * ''Family Letters of Robert and Elinor Frost'' (State University of New York Press, 1972). * ''Robert Frost and Sidney Cox: Forty Years of Friendship'' (University Press of New England, 1981).

External links
{{wikiquote}} {{Wikisource author}}
- Robert Frost on Poets.org Biography, poems, and related essays, from the Academy of American Poets
- Brief biography at Kirjasto (Pegasos)
- Frost at Modern American Poetry
- Brief biography & poems * {{gutenberg author| id=Robert+Frost | name=Robert Frost}}
- Vast Collection of Poems and Quotes by Frost
- Several of Frost's early books online
- A collection of poetry by Robert Frost
- Review of Robert Frostâ€™s ''Birches''
- The Road Not Taken (Multi-media presentation)
- Robert Frost and Amherst College
- Theta Delta Chi International Fraternity
- The Friends of Robert Frost
- The Frost Place A center for poetry and the arts, Franconia, NH

Sources
{{cite web | author=Pritchard, William H.| year=2000| title=Frost's Life and Career | format=http || url=http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/life.htm | accessdate=March 18 | accessyear=2001}} Category:American poets Frost, Robert Category:English-language poets Frost, Robert Category:Pulitzer Prize winners Frost Category:Autodidacts Frost, Robert Category:Dartmouth College alumni Frost, Robert Category:People from New Hampshire Frost, Robert Category:Scottish-Americans Frost, Robert Category:1874 births Frost, Robert Category:1963 deaths Frost, Robert de:Robert Frost fr:Robert Frost no:Robert Frost pl:Robert Frost pt:Robert Frost sr:Ð Ð¾Ð±ÐµÑ€Ñ‚ Ð¤Ñ€Ð¾Ñ?Ñ‚

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