The Collected Prose

by Robert Frost, Mark Richardson (Editor)

During his lifetime, Robert Frost notoriously resisted collecting his prose--going so far as to halt the publication of one prepared compilation and to "lose" the transcripts of the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures he delivered at Harvard in 1936. But for all his qualms, Frost conceded to his son that "you can say a lot in prose that verse won't let you say," and that the prose he had written had in fact "made good competition for [his] verse." This volume, the first critical edition of Robert Frost's prose, allows readers and scholars to appreciate the great American author's forays beyond poetry, and to discover in the prose that he did make public--in newspapers, magazines, journals, speeches, and books--the wit, force, and grace that made his poetry famous. The Collected Prose of Robert Frost offers an extensive and illuminating body of work, ranging from juvenilia--Frost's contributions to his high school Bulletin --to the charming "chicken stories" he wrote as a young family man for The Eastern Poultryman and Farm Poultry, to such famous essays as "The Figure a Poem Makes" and the speeches and contributions to magazines solicited when he had become the Grand Old Man of American letters. Gathered, annotated, and cross-referenced by Mark Richardson, the collection is based on extensive work in archives of Frost's manuscripts. It provides detailed notes on the author's habits of composition and on important textual issues and includes much previously unpublished material. It is a book of boundless appeal and importance, one that should find a home on the bookshelf of anyone interested in Frost.

Genres: Essays

416 pages, Hardcover

First published February 28, 2008

About the author

Flinty, moody, plainspoken and deep, Robert Frost was one of America's most popular 20th-century poets. Frost was farming in Derry, New Hampshire when, at the age of 38, he sold the farm, uprooted his family and moved to England, where he devoted himself to his poetry. His first two books of verse, A Boy's Will (1913) and North of Boston (1914), were immediate successes. In 1915 he returned to the United States and continued to write while living in New Hampshire and then Vermont. His pastoral images of apple trees and stone fences -- along with his solitary, man-of-few-words poetic voice -- helped define the modern image of rural New England. Frost's poems include "Mending Wall" ("Good fences make good neighbors"), "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" ("Whose woods these are I think I know"), and perhaps his most famous work, "The Road Not Taken" ("Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- / I took the one less traveled by"). Frost was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry four times: in 1924, 1931, 1937 and 1943. He also served as "Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress" from 1958-59; that position was renamed as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry (or simply Poet Laureate) in 1986.

Frost recited his poem "The Gift Outright" at the 1961 inauguration of John F. Kennedy... Frost attended both Dartmouth College and Harvard, but did not graduate from either school... Frost preferred traditional rhyme and meter in poetry; his famous dismissal of free verse was, "I'd just as soon play tennis with the net down."

Reviews

[Jake McAtee · Rating 4 out of 5]

It always seemed that Frost was mainstream and less interesting. I was wrong.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did you know that Robert Frost, for the period of a couple years, wrote a series of short stories about chickens for a poultry magazine?  I did not, and I greatly appreciated those stories, which were merely one of several surprises to be found here, if perhaps the most welcome one.  This book demonstrates what happens when famous people die and they wrote widely in genres that they were not famous for.  Robert Frost, for better or worse, is famous as a New England poet, and when he died it was found in the researching about his writing that he wrote a lot more than poetry.  As it happens, this book collects together the prose of the author, and does so in a way that avoids his more extemporaneous messages with heavy editing by listeners and focuses on his more formal writing where one can get a sense of the author's own prose voice.  And for the most part that prose voice is appealing.  I honestly prefer Frost's prose to his poetry, and think that if only his short stories about chickens had survived he would still be a writer worth knowing even if he would likely have never been remembered outside of a small circle of historians of obscure writings.

This book is a bit less than 250 pages of core material (the endnotes are lengthy and extensive and go on for another hundred and twenty pages or so) and it contains a diverse and quirky array of prose divided into 76 different documents, organized as best as possible into chronological order.  In reading this material one sees the sort of occasional prose that authors write.  We see his beginnings as a writer in high school with some selections from the High School Bulletin, some early travel writings and children's stories from when he was barely more than a child himself.  His poultry writings form eleven writings (but one document) that takes up about 30 pages and would make for an entertaining short volume on its own.  There are some articles associated with the Pinkerton Academy, and a large number of writings that serve as short introductions to the books of others.  This is the sort of writing we would expect that someone would make to support the books of others.  There are letters to the editor, various contributions to magazines and other volumes, and even some letters.  The result is a pleasing if highly disparate collection of writings.

And, in general, the prose included here makes one feel a great deal more fondness of Robert Frost than may be the case otherwise.  We see his loyalty to friends, his interest in farming and in education, his willingness to pay debts to the dead and also support the writing efforts of others.  We see him make comments about poetry, including the poets he greatly appreciates, and the effort of writing poetry from people in other cultures, and his own efforts to wrestle with and properly interpret poems.  He gives tributes to fellow writers like Faulkner and Hemmingway and Amy Lowell and Emerson, which is sort of what one would expect from a writer of his general tolerance and interest in others and his own place and time.  Someone who reads this book will not only get a sense of the sort of prose that Robert Frost wrote, often occasional prose in the midst of other duties and interests, but one also gets a sense of what may be expected of someone as a writer when they have made it to a certain degree of popularity, where their views on the writings of others are considered particularly important.

[Cindi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enlightening journey into the mind and history of Robert Frost. While some of the earlier articles dragged a bit after a while (even Frost admits only so much can be said about chickens... lol ) overall they were a good read and held interesting facts and even more interesting looks into Frost's mind and thoughts.

I was surprised to read in the intro that he didn't even want his prose published like this so it had to be done after he had long passed on because he would keep blocking progress in the end. His reasoning was he didn't want it to compete with his poetry. Other parts I enjoyed finding out were how close he was to some of the other greats in poetry history. His tributes were beautiful and meaningful and his mentions in other writings were always respectful, even when he was actively disagreeing with their work.

Overall this was a great read, especially once you get past the first few collections of articles in his younger years. It was an eye opening adventure and an entertaining exploration into more of what made Frost who he was. If you enjoy Frost's work in poetry, I encourage you to read this collection of his prose. You will look at Frost with new eyes and a deeper appreciation for both his work as well as him in general.

[Nina · Rating 3 out of 5]

i picked this up because i was curious about the essays frost wrote for eastern poultryman. i thought essays on chickens would be more fun and cheeky though i didn't read them all.

[Peter]

Education by Poetry is worth the whole book