You Come Too: My Journey with Robert Frost

Robert Frost observed in his wife, Elinor, a desire to live "a life that goes rather poetically." The same could be said of many members of the Frost family, over several generations. In You Come Too, Frost’s granddaughter, Lesley Lee Francis, combines priceless personal memories and rigorous research to create a portrait of Frost and the women, including herself, whose lives he touched.

Francis provides a vivid picture of Frost the family man, revealing him to be intensely engaged rather than the aloof artist that is commonly portrayed. She shares with us the devastation Frost and Elinor experienced when faced with tragic illnesses, both physical and mental, and the untimely death of family members. Elinor’s own death added to the poet’s despair and unleashed complex feelings throughout the family. (Francis’s mother would lament the toll taken on Elinor by what she perceived as Frost’s "selfishness" in the life he had chosen.)

This is also the story of Lesley Frost, Francis’s remarkable mother, who struggled to emerge from her celebrated father’s shadow, while, as one of the people closest to him, sharing his intuitive impulse to write and to indulge their mutual love of books and poetry. Francis would herself become yet another writer and, like her grandfather and mother before her, a teacher--despite sharing Frost’s sense of being "imperfectly academic." In addition, Francis explores Frost’s professional relationships with women outside the family, such as the poets Harriet Monroe, Amy Lowell, and Susan Hayes Ward.

Francis’s invaluable insights into Frost’s poetry and her inclusion of previously unpublished family writings and photographs make this book essential to Frost scholarship. But You Come Too will appeal to anyone interested in this great poet’s life and work. It also reveals unforgettable stories of strong, independent women and their passion to create and share poetry.

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You Come Too: My Journey with Robert Frost

Robert Frost observed in his wife, Elinor, a desire to live "a life that goes rather poetically." The same could be said of many members of the Frost family, over several generations. In You Come Too, Frost’s granddaughter, Lesley Lee Francis, combines priceless personal memories and rigorous research to create a portrait of Frost and the women, including herself, whose lives he touched.

Francis provides a vivid picture of Frost the family man, revealing him to be intensely engaged rather than the aloof artist that is commonly portrayed. She shares with us the devastation Frost and Elinor experienced when faced with tragic illnesses, both physical and mental, and the untimely death of family members. Elinor’s own death added to the poet’s despair and unleashed complex feelings throughout the family. (Francis’s mother would lament the toll taken on Elinor by what she perceived as Frost’s "selfishness" in the life he had chosen.)

This is also the story of Lesley Frost, Francis’s remarkable mother, who struggled to emerge from her celebrated father’s shadow, while, as one of the people closest to him, sharing his intuitive impulse to write and to indulge their mutual love of books and poetry. Francis would herself become yet another writer and, like her grandfather and mother before her, a teacher--despite sharing Frost’s sense of being "imperfectly academic." In addition, Francis explores Frost’s professional relationships with women outside the family, such as the poets Harriet Monroe, Amy Lowell, and Susan Hayes Ward.

Francis’s invaluable insights into Frost’s poetry and her inclusion of previously unpublished family writings and photographs make this book essential to Frost scholarship. But You Come Too will appeal to anyone interested in this great poet’s life and work. It also reveals unforgettable stories of strong, independent women and their passion to create and share poetry.

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You Come Too: My Journey with Robert Frost

You Come Too: My Journey with Robert Frost

You Come Too: My Journey with Robert Frost

You Come Too: My Journey with Robert Frost

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Overview

Robert Frost observed in his wife, Elinor, a desire to live "a life that goes rather poetically." The same could be said of many members of the Frost family, over several generations. In You Come Too, Frost’s granddaughter, Lesley Lee Francis, combines priceless personal memories and rigorous research to create a portrait of Frost and the women, including herself, whose lives he touched.

Francis provides a vivid picture of Frost the family man, revealing him to be intensely engaged rather than the aloof artist that is commonly portrayed. She shares with us the devastation Frost and Elinor experienced when faced with tragic illnesses, both physical and mental, and the untimely death of family members. Elinor’s own death added to the poet’s despair and unleashed complex feelings throughout the family. (Francis’s mother would lament the toll taken on Elinor by what she perceived as Frost’s "selfishness" in the life he had chosen.)

This is also the story of Lesley Frost, Francis’s remarkable mother, who struggled to emerge from her celebrated father’s shadow, while, as one of the people closest to him, sharing his intuitive impulse to write and to indulge their mutual love of books and poetry. Francis would herself become yet another writer and, like her grandfather and mother before her, a teacher--despite sharing Frost’s sense of being "imperfectly academic." In addition, Francis explores Frost’s professional relationships with women outside the family, such as the poets Harriet Monroe, Amy Lowell, and Susan Hayes Ward.

Francis’s invaluable insights into Frost’s poetry and her inclusion of previously unpublished family writings and photographs make this book essential to Frost scholarship. But You Come Too will appeal to anyone interested in this great poet’s life and work. It also reveals unforgettable stories of strong, independent women and their passion to create and share poetry.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780813937465
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Publication date: 12/03/2015
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 288
File size: 5 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Lesley Lee Francis is a retired professor of Spanish language, literature, and history. The author of Robert Frost: An Adventure in Poetry, 1900-1918 and organizer of the annual Frost Symposium, she has written and lectured extensively on her grandfather.

Table of Contents

Foreword Jay Parini ix

Preface xiii

I Before 1958 1

The Derry Years 3

Robert Frost and the Child 7

The English Years 15

Franconia, New Hampshire 23

The Stone House and the Gully 29

Robert Frost and Women 30

Elinor Miriam White Frost 59

Lesley Frost 61

II After 1938 123

Gainesville and the Death of Elinor Frost 125

Kathleen Morrison and the Homer Noble Farm 127

Mounting Family Tragedies 130

Robert Frost's Religious Views 133

The War Years in Washington, D.C. 136

On Assignment in Spain 148

Lesley Lee: Education and Employment 150

Frost Studies and Lawrance Thompson 161

Robert Frost and Harvard 165

Robert Frost's Interest in Archaeology, Indians, and Pre-Columbian Artifacts 172

Robert and Lesley Frost: The Lure of Art 189

Robert Frost: The Spanish Connection 194

Honorary Degrees in England and Ireland 198

Robert Frost's Eighty-Fifth Birthday and Lionel Trilling 201

Robert Frost and Politics 202

The Death of Robert Frost 206

"Education by Poetry": Escuela de la Tahona 209

Afterword 217

Acknowledgments 231

Selected Bibliography 235

Index 239

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