Robert Frost

Biography

Born on March 26, 1874, Robert Frost spent his first 40 years as an unknown. He exploded on the scene after returning from England at the beginning of WWI. Winner of four Pulitzer Prizes and a special guest at President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, Frost became a poetic force and the unofficial "poet laureate" of the United States. He died of complications from prostate surgery on January 29, 1963.

Childhood & Early Years
Frost was born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco, California to journalist William Prescott Frost, Jr., and Isabelle Moodie. His mother belonged to Scottish family, while his father’s ancestry was from Nicholas Frost of Tiverton, Devon, England. His fatherwas a teacher and later became an editor withSan Francisco Evening Bulletin. Frost’s father was also an unsuccessful candidate for city tax collector and died on 5 May, 1885. Post his demise, the family moved to a lot of places around the country like Lawrence, Massachusetts, etc under the advocacy of his grandfather, William Frost, Sr., who worked as an overseer at New England mill. In 1892, Robert Frost graduated from Lawrence High School. His mother joined the Swedenborgian church and had him immersed in it only. But when he grew up, he left the same.
 
Despite being popular for his rural life poetry, Frost was brought up in the city. The first poem of Frost got published in his high school magazine. He went to Dartmouth College for only two months, which was considered enough to be acquired into the Theta Delta Chi fraternity. He then returned back, taught and worked for numerous jobs such as helping his mother teach her class of unruly boys, delivering newspapers, and working in a factory as a light bulb filament changer. But he never enjoyed performing these odd-jobs. To him, poetry was where his heart was.

Later Years
Frost sold out his first poem called"My Butterfly: An Elegy" in 1894 for $15. It was published in the New York Independent edition on November 8, 1894. He then went on a journey to the great dismal swamp in Virginia. He also attended studies of liberal arts at Harvard University for two years. Despite being a very good student at Harvard, he left it to support his family. Just before dying, his grandfather bought a farm for Robert and his wife, Elinor in Derry, New Hampshire. Frost worked in the farm for long nine years, simultaneously writing early in the mornings. During this time, Frost had penned down several poems which became popular later on. Eventually, his farming failed, which routed Frost back to the education field from where he had started. From 1906 to 1911, he served as an English teacher at New Hampshire's Pinkerton Academy and afterwards at the New Hampshire Normal School in Plymouth, New Hampshire.  
 
In 1912, Frost with his family shifted to Great Britain, lived initially in Glasgow. Later, he settled in Beaconsfield outside London. His first poetry book titled “A Boy's Will” was published the very next year. In England, Frost became friends with some important people like Edward Thomas, member of the group known as the Dymock Poets, T.E. Hulme, and Ezra Pound. Pound was the first American to write a review on the work of Frost, but later Frost disliked the former’s efforts to mold his American poetry. Being surrounded amongst friends and companions, Frost came out with some tremendous and best work in England. In 1915, after World War I started, he returned back to America and purchased a farm in Franconia, New Hampshire. Here he established a career in writing, teaching and lecturing. This family habitat served as his summer home until 1938. The house is now maintained as the Frost Place, a museum and poetry conference site. During the years 1916-20, 1923-24, and 1927-38, Frost taught English at Amherst College, in Massachusetts. He used to influence and encourage his students to bring sound of the human voice in their writings.

Robert Frost died on January 29, 1963 in Boston as a result of the complications from prostate surgery. Frost was buried at the Old Bennington Cemetery in Bennington, Vermont.