Robert Frost Collections

 

Rauner Library is privileged to provide access to one of the largest collections of Robert Frost materials in the world. Frost, who enrolled at Dartmouth in the Fall of 1892, dropped out before completing his first term. But he maintained a deep fondness for Dartmouth, and returned often: from 1942 to 1947, he was the George Ticknor Fellow in the Humanities and he repeatedly gave lectures and readings until his death in 1963.

Frost’s papers are among the most heavily used manuscripts in the Dartmouth College Library. Literary critics, biographers, and editors have all explored the collection in recent years, as well as novelists, poets, musicians and students looking for inspiration. Robert Frost is as relevant today as he was fifty years ago.

 

Printed Collections

Rauner Library has more than 1,200 printed works relating to Robert Frost. These include the first printed appearances of many of his poems, a collection of his personal Christmas cards, translations of his works into other languages, and multiple first editions of his books of poetry, many of which are presentation copies or have been inscribed by the author. Records for all of these items can be found in the Library’s online catalog.

 

Manuscript Collections

The Robert Frost manuscript collection (MS-1178) contains correspondence, manuscripts, typescripts, galley proofs, legal and financial documents, appointment and engagement calendars, and ephemera of the American poet Robert Frost, as well as some correspondence and manuscript writings about Frost and individual issues of periodicals in which Frost’s poetry was published.

The bulk of the collection is made up of incoming personal and professional correspondence, more than forty manuscript notebooks as well as drafts and fair copies of Frost’s poetry, plays, and prose. Legal and financial papers, appointment calendars, and printed ephemera, as well as writings about Frost by those who knew him, provide context for the poet’s literary work.

 

There are also  numerous collections available for research in Rauner Library that relate to Robert Frost in some way:

 

Lawrance Thompson Collection of Robert Frost (MS-590)

• Thompson was an English professor who was selected by Frost to be his biographer in 1939.The collection contains photographs of Robert Frost, audio-recordings of Frost speeches and photocopies of Frost letters, as well as published and unpublished source material for Thompson's publications on Robert Frost.

 

Papers of Edward Thomas (MS-958)

• Thomas was a British poet and close friend of Frost who died in WWI. His papers include his collection of books, typescripts, manuscripts, notes, correspondence, photographs, newspaper and magazine clippings about Thomas’ prose and poetry. Diaries, manuscripts/notes of Helen Thomas' work, and Myfanwy (Ann) Thomas' articles about her parents, and correspondence of Helen Thomas and Ann Thomas are also included.

 

Papers of Edward Connery Lathem (MS-965)

• Edward Connery Lathem was a member of Dartmouth’s class of 1951 and Dean of Dartmouth College Library. He was also a close friend of Robert Frost as well as the editor of a 1969 of Robert Frost’s work which is still considered the standard edition. A small portion of his papers contain materials related to his research and writings on Frost.

 

Collection of Robert Frost Lectures of Edward Connery Lathem (MS-1012)

• The Robert Frost lectures collection contains transcribed lectures and readings by Robert Frost collected by Edward Connery Lathem. The lectures, delivered from 1941-1962, were given at colleges, universities, and other cultural institutions.

 

Papers of Edward Hyde Cox (MS-1168)

• Edward Hyde Cox was a wealthy benefactor of Dartmouth College and other institutions in New England and was also a good friend of Robert Frost. Relevant materials in Cox’s papers include photographs of Robert Frost, some audio reels of Cox discussing Frost with others, some Frost-related correspondence, and his personal annotated Robert Frost poetry books.

 

Papers of Kathleen Morrison (MS-1211)

• Kathleen "Kay" Johnston Morrison (1898-1989) was secretary-manager to the poet Robert Frost from 1938 until Frost's death in 1963 and was then the literary executor afterward. The bulk of her papers at Dartmouth is related to her 25-year secretarial stint for the poet.

 

Papers of Anne Morrison Gentry Smyth (MS-1213)

• Smyth was the daughter of Kathleen “Kay” Morrison and Theodore Morrison. As such, she was well acquainted with Frost from childhood. Her papers contain documents related to her visits to Frost during his hospitalization at the end of his life as well as other Frost-related ephemera and some materials about Ezra Pound.
  
  

Papers of Edna Davis Romig (MS-1215)

• Romig was a Professor of English at the University of Colorado at Boulder and a friend of Robert and Elinor Frost. Her papers primarily contain correspondence from Robert and Elinor Frost as well as correspondence about Robert Frost from Carl Burell, Robert S. Newdick, and Charles R. Green. The papers also include a few items of ephemera related to Robert Frost.

 

Papers of Sylvia Clark (MS-1216)

• Sylvia Clark was born in Derry, New Hampshire, in 1871.Many of the items in the Clark papers document her association with Robert Frost, first as a neighbor of the poet in Derry, New Hampshire, and later as a colleague while teaching at Pinkerton Academy. 

 

Papers of J.J. Lankes (MS-1115)

• Julius John (J.J.) Lankes was an instructor of art at Wells College in New York state and a noted woodcut artist who was most often associated with illustrating publications of Robert Frost's poetry. The collection includes numerous sketches, photographs, prints, and correspondence related to Robert Frost.

 

Rauner Library Exhibits

The Poet Present: In Robert Frost’s Hand and Voice. The exhibit was on display in Rauner Library from June 5th through August 8th, 2008.

 

Audio-visual Materials (not yet publicly available)

The Digital Frost Project

 

Selected Bibliography (courtesy of Middlebury College)

WORKS BY FROST

The Letters of Robert Frost to Louis Untermeyer. ed. Louis Untermeyer. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963.

 

Prose Jottings of Robert Frost. ed. Edward Connery Lathem and Hyde Cox. Lunenburg, VT: Northeast Kingdom Publishers, 1982.

 

Robert Frost: Collected Poems, Prose, and Plays. Ed. Richard Poirier and Mark Richardson. New York: Library of America, 1995.

 

Selected Letters of Robert Frost. ed. Lawrence Thompson. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964.

 

INTERVIEWS WITH FROST 

Cook, Reginald L. Robert Frost: A Living Voice. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1974.

 

Francis, Robert. Frost: A Time to Talk – Conversations and Indiscretions. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1972.

 

Lathem, Edward Connery, ed. Interviews with Robert Frost. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966.

 

Mertins, Louis. Robert Frost: Life and Talks-Walking. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965.

 

Smythe, Daniel. Robert Frost Speaks. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1966.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND MEMOIRS

Anderson, Margaret Bartlett. Robert Frost and John Bartlett: The Record of a Friendship. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963.

 

Burnshaw, Stanley. Robert Frost Himself. New York: G. Braziller, 1986.

 

Cox, Sidney. A Swinger of Birches: A Portrait of Robert Frost. Introduction by Robert Frost. New York: New York University Press, 1957.

 

Francis, Lesley Lee. The Frost Family’s Adventure in Poetry: Sheer Morning Gladness at the Brim. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1994.

 

Gould, Jean. Robert Frost: The Aim Was Song. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1964.

 

Meyers, Jeffrey. Robert Frost: A Biography. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.

 

Muir, Helen. Frost in Florida: A Memoir. Miami: Valiant Press, 1995.

 

Munson, Gorham B. Robert Frost: A Study in Sensibility and Good Sense. New York: George H. Doran, 1927.

 

Nedwick, Robert. Nedwick’s Season of Frost: An Interrupted Biography of Robert Frost. Ed. William A. Sutton. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1976.

 

Pritchard, William H. Robert Frost: A Literary Life Reconsidered. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.

 

Reeve, F. D. Robert Frost in Russia. Boston: Little, Brown, 1964.

 

Sergeant, Elizabeth Shipley. Robert Frost: The Trial by Existence. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966.

 

Thompson, Lawrance. Robert Frost: The Early Years, 1874-1915. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966.

 

--. Robert Frost: The Years of Triumph, 1915-1938. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970.

 

Thompson, Lawrance, and R. H. Winnick. Robert Frost: The Later Years, 1938-1963. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976.

 

Walsh, John Evangelist. Into My Own: The English Years of Robert Frost. New York: Grove Press, 1988.

 

CRITICISM

Bagby, George. Robert Frost and the Book of Nature. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1993.

 

Brodsky, Joseph, Seamus Heaney, and Derek Walcott. Homage to Robert Frost. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996.

 

Brower, Reuben. The Poetry of Robert Frost: Constellations of Intention. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965.

 

Cook, Reginald L. The Dimensions of Robert Frost. New York: Rineart, 1958.

 

Cox, James M., ed. Robert Frost : A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1962.

 

Cramer, Jeffrey S. Robert Frost Among His Poems : A Literary Companion to the Poet’s Own Biographical Contexts and Associations. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1996.

 

Faggen, Robert. Robert Frost and the Challenge of Darwin. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997.

 

Frost: Centennial Essays. Compiled by the Committee on the Frost Centennial of the University of Southern Mississippi. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 1974-78.

 

Gerber, Philip L., ed. Critical Essays on Robert Frost. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1982.

 

Kearns, Katherine. Robert Frost and a Poetics of Appetite. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

 

Kemp, John C. Robert Frost and New England: The Poet as Regionalist. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.

 

Lentricchia, Frank. Robert Frost: Modern Poetics and the Landscapes of Self. Durham: Duke University Press, 1975.

 

Lynen, John F. The Pastoral Art of Robert Frost. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964.

 

Monteiro, George W. Human Values in the Poetry of Robert Frost. Durham: Duke University Press, 1960.

 

Oster, Judith. Toward Robert Frost: The Reader and the Poet. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991.

 

Poirier, Richard. Robert Frost: The Work of Knowing. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.

 

Richardson, Mark. The Ordeal of Robert Frost. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997.

 

Sheehy, Donald G. “The Poet as Neurotic: The Official Biography of Robert Frost.” American Literature, October, 1986, 393-409.

 

--. “(Re) Figuring Love: Robert Frost in Crisis, 1938-1942.” New England Quarterly, June, 1990, 179-231.

 

Thompson, Lawrance. Fire and Ice: The Art and Thought of Robert Frost. New York: Russell & Russell, 1942.

 

Thornton, Richard. Recognition of Robert Frost: Twenty-fifth Anniversary. New York: Henry Holt, 1937.