Whose works these are ... Jones Library is named Frost literary landmark

By Bonnie Wells
Staff Writer

Published on October 16, 2009

The yellowed manuscript bears the spidery script of the poet Robert Frost. Best of all, it offers a window on the evolution of one of the four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning poet's best-loved works.

In the draft of "Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening," words and lines are crossed out and substitutions made. "A falling flake" becomes "a downy flake." "Between a forest and a lake" becomes the final "Between the woods and frozen lake."

"You can see the poet at work," said Tevis Kimball, curator of special collections at the Jones Library in Amherst, where the manuscript is one of some 12,000 items in the Frost Collection. In addition to correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, audio and visual recordings, news clippings and other materials, the library has a first edition of Frost's first collection, "A Boy's Will," published in London in 1913, during Frost's two-and-a-half-year sojourn in England.

There is a 40-cent ticket to a Frost reading at The People's Institute in Northampton, dated 1939, and a Lawrence High School Bulletin from May of 1891 in which Frost's poem "A Dream of Julius Caesar" appears. When he graduated from the high school the following year he was the co-valedictorian with Elinor Miriam White, who would become his bride in 1895.

Partly on the strength of the collection, the Jones has been designated a literary landmark this fall. The library will celebrate the distinction in two public events next week.

Charles R. Green

The force behind the Jones collection was its first director, Charles R. Green, who held the position from 1921 to 1954. Frost had arrived in Amherst in 1916 to teach English at Amherst College and continued his affiliation with the college and the town until his death in 1963. While libraries at Dartmouth and Amherst colleges also house significant Frost collections, Green was one of the first to recognize the poet's importance and to actively search out and collect his papers.

"I think [Frost] was touched by his interest," said Kimball, "Frost used this library; his mail and his books came here, and his private library was here for a time."

In 1952, Frost inscribed a volume of his poetry, "To the Jones Library, my first serious collector and longtime friend under Charles Green."

One item in the collection reflecting Frost's friendship with Green as well as his signature humor is an uncashed check in the amount of three dollars, made out to Frost from the Washington Post, dated April 5, 1941. On the back, Frost wrote of his intention to sign it over to Green if he should see fit to cash it, saying, "This is the smallest amount I ever got for a poem either before or after I made a reputation."

"When I came here to work in 2001, I knew that my calling was to do something for these Dickinson and Frost collections," Kimball said. "They were so important. Not many people know how extensive the collection is."

But that's about to change.

Literary landmark

This fall the library has been designated a literary landmark by the Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations, a division of the American Library Association. The designation is given in recognition of the library's early relationship with Frost and the strength of its collection. Since 1986, the group has designated 160 literary landmark sites throughout the country. The next nearest site is the Dr. Seuss National Memorial in Springfield.

The Jones will mark the honor next week, starting with an evening event on Wednesday, Oct. 21, featuring a talk by William Pritchard of Amherst. Pritchard, a professor of English at Amherst College, is the author of a critical biography of Frost, the 1993 "Frost: A Literary Life Reconsidered," and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review. He will speak on "Frost's Mischievous Grip."

"Many of Frost's best moments are serious but also playful," Pritchard said. "The reader has to get involved with the play' to enter into the poem."

Preceding the talk, at 7 p.m., a group from Amherst Regional High School led by Tobias Thomas will perform chamber music in the special collections area on the third floor, and following, at a reception in the Burnett Gallery.

On Saturday, Oct. 24, at 1 p.m., a bronze plaque will be unveiled at a ceremony on the library's front lawn, dedicating the Jones as a literary landmark. At 2:30 p.m., the festivities move inside to the atrium, where children's librarian Sondra Radosh will lead a group of Amherst young people in a Reader's Theater presentation of several of Frost's poems, with harp accompaniment by library trustee Sara McKee.

"It's fitting that we do this now," said Kimball. "It will be 50 years to the day that we dedicated the Robert Frost Room (now the Trustees Room) on the town's 200th anniversary," with Frost in attendance.

At the unveiling, in addition to library, town and state officials, Frost's grandaughter Lesley Lee Francis will be on hand to share her reflections and read a poem. Francis is co-honorary trustee of the Robert Frost Farm in Derry, N.H., and a member of the advisory board of The Robert Frost Review. She has written some 14 articles on her famous grandfather and family and is the author of the 1994 book "The Frost Family's Adventure: Sheer Morning Gladness at the Brim."

"I'm very pleased about the literary landmark designation," Francis said in a phone conversation from her home in Arlington, Va. "The Jones Library started collecting his work early and it's a high-quality collection. "Librarians are the quiet heroes," she added. "They're very important to the study of any poet."

"I can't tell you how much the Frost poems touch people," Kimball said. She tells a story about a man who traveled up from New York to visit the collection and bent over the poem "A Leaf-Treader" for what seemed like a long time. He was reading the opening lines:

I have been treading on leaves all day until I am autumn-tired.

God knows all the color and form of leaves I have trodden on and mired.

Perhaps I have put forth too much strength and been too fierce from fear.

"He was so touched by it, he wanted to read [the third line] over and over," Kimball said, "and you know the line of poetry has made a difference in his life. These are the wonderful points where you know the poetry has touched people deeply, and you've been a part of that."

She takes a beat and adds, "I think Frost would be pleased that so many people can come here and have access to his collection."