Realistic depictions of rural life, American colloquial speech, writes about ordinary men, examine complex social and philosophical themes.

Robert Lee Frost  was born in California USA on 26th March 1874. His parents William Prescott Frost and Isabel Moodie, met when they were both working as teachers. Robert was the eldest of their two children, Jeanie being his sister.  	In 1885 following the death of his father, the family moved in with his grandfather in Lawrence Massachusetts.

Did you know . . .

In 1894, Frost sold his first poem “My Butterfly. An Elegy”, to the New York Independent, for $15 ($409 today).

Frost’s grandfather purchased a farm for Frost and his wife. Frost worked in it for nine years but failed,  then worked as English teacher from 1906 to 1911. 

 He found it difficult to get his poems published. In 1912, Robert and Elinor  moved to England, thinking that publishers there would be more willing to take a chance on a new poet. In 1913, Frost’s first book of poems, A Boy’s Will, was published by British publisher David Nutt. The following year Nutt also published another poetry collection by Frost titled, North of Boston.

The onset of World War I, brought the Frosts back to America. North of Boston had become a bestseller and Frost was acclaimed by critics the publishing world. Publishers like Atlantic Monthly who had previously rejected Frost’s work, now came calling. Frost famously sent Atlantic Monthly the same poems that they had turned down before he went to England

Frost won the first of four Pulitzer Prizes in 1924 for his fourth book, New Hampshire, and followed it with West-Running Brook (1928) and A Further Range (1936), which also won a Pulitzer.   He remains the only poet and one of only four persons who have won four Pulitzer Prizes. In 1960, Frost was awarded with the highest civilian award, United States Congressional Gold Medal, “In recognition of his poetry which enabled the culture of the United States and the philosophy of the world”.

At the age of 86, Frost was asked to write and recite a poem for President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. On January 20, 1961, at the inauguration, Frost could not read the words due to the blur of the sun and his failing eyesight. Undaunted, Frost put aside the new poem and instead recited his famous poem “The Gift Outright”, which he had committed to memory. This was the first time a poet had honored a presidential inauguration.

I