Robert Frost papers

American poet Robert Frost (1874-1963) was born in San Francisco, California. After the death of his father, the family moved to New England, which provided the backdrop for Frost's trademark regional poetry. Frost briefly attended both Dartmouth College and Harvard University but did not earn a degree. Frost initially encountered difficulties in establishing himself as a published poet in American newspapers and literary journals. After little success in America, Frost and his family moved to England for three years, which proved to be more fertile publishing ground. By the time he returned to the United States in 1915, Frost had published two well-received full-length collections, A Boy's Will (1913) and North of Boston (1914), which solidified his reputation on both continents. By the 1920s, he was the most celebrated poet in America. Frost was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for literature four times: for New Hampshire (1923), Collected Poems (1930), A Further Range (1936), and A Witness Tree (1942). Frost received more than forty honorary degrees from colleges and universities, including Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Amherst College, and the University of Michigan. He also had the honor of participating in President John F. Kennedy's inauguration ceremonies, 1961, by reading his poems "Dedication" and "The Gift Outright." This collection includes manuscripts of "Closed for Good" and "The Middleness of the Road"; page proofs of the verse drama A Masque of Reason (1942) and galley proofs of Steeple Bush (1947); art work, photographs, correspondence, work papers, an award, sheet music, serials, and audio recordings of Frost. The collection is unprocessed, but a preliminary inventory is available.