Contemporary American Literature Part 27

Upon going to live in the Middle West, Miss French became interested in the local color of Iowa and Arkansas and in the labor conditions with which she came in contact as a member of a family of manufacturers. The sociological and propagandist elements are strong in her work.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Knitters in the Sun. 1887.

Stories of a Western Town. 1893.

The Man of the Hour. 1905.

The Lion's Share. 1907.

By Inheritance. 1910.

Stories That End Well. 1911.

A Step on the Stair. 1913.

And the Captain Answered. 1917.

STUDIES AND REVIEWS

Harkins. (Women.) Patee.

Arena, 38 ('07): 683 (portrait), 691.

Cur. Lit. 28 ('00): 143.

+Robert Lee Frost+--poet.

Born at San Francisco, 1875. At the age of ten, he was taken to New England where eight generations of his forefathers had lived. In 1892, he spent a few months at Dartmouth College but disliking college routine, decided to earn his living, and became a millhand in Lawrence, Ma.s.sachusetts. In 1897, two years after he had married, he entered Harvard and studied there for two years; but he finally gave up the idea of a degree and turned to various kinds of work, teaching, shoe-making, and newspaper work. From 1900-11, he was farming at Derry, New Hamps.h.i.+re, but with little success. At the same time, he was writing and offering for publication poems which were invariably refused. He likewise taught English at Derry, 1906-11, and psychology at Plymouth, 1911-2.

In 1912, he sold his farm and with his wife and four children went to England. He offered a collection of poems to an English publisher and went to live in the little country town of Beaconsfield. The poems were published and their merits were quickly recognized. In 1914, Mr. Frost rented a small place at Ledbury, Gloucesters.h.i.+re, near the English poets, Lascelles Abercrombie, and W.W. Gibson. With the publication of _North of Boston_ his reputation as a poet was established.

In 1915, Mr. Frost returned to America and went to live near Franconia, New Hamps.h.i.+re. From 1916 to 1919 he taught English at Amherst College.

But he found that college life was disturbing to his creative energy, and in 1920 he bought land in Vermont and again became a farmer. In 1921, the University of Michigan, in recognition of his talents, offered him a salary to live in Ann Arbor without teaching. This position he accepted, but it is reported that he intends to return to farming to secure the leisure necessary for his work.

SUGGESTIONS FOR READING

1. Make a list of subjects that you have not found treated elsewhere in poetry. Test the truth of the treatment by your own experience and decide whether Mr. Frost has converted these commonplace experiences into a new field of poetry.

2. Read in succession the poems concerning New England life and decide whether they seem more authentic and more valuable than the others. If so, why?

3. Is Mr. Frost's realism photographic? Consider in this connection his own statement: "There are two types of realist--the one who offers a good deal of dirt with his potato to show that it is a real one; and the one who is satisfied with the potato brushed clean.... To me the thing that art does for life is to strip it to form."

In view of the last sentence it is interesting to consider the kinds of details that Mr. Frost chooses for presentation and those that he omits.

4. Read several of the long poems to discover his relative strength in narrative and in dramatic presentation.

5. Examine the vocabulary for naturalness, colloquialism, and extraordinary occasional fitness of words.

6. Try to sum up briefly Mr. Frost's philosophy of life and his att.i.tude toward nature and people.

7. What do you observe about the metrical forms, the beauty or lack of beauty in the rhythm? Do many of the poems sing?

8. What do you prophesy as to Mr. Frost's future?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A Boy's Will. 1913.

North of Boston. 1914.

Mountain Interval. 1916.

STUDIES AND REVIEWS

Boynton Lowell.

Untermeyer.

Atlan. 116 ('15): 214.

Bookm. 45 ('17): 430 (portrait); 47 ('18): 135.

Chapbook, 1-2, May, 1920: 5.

Cur. Op. 58 ('15): 427 (portrait).

Dial, 61 ('16): 528.

Ind. 86 ('16): 283; 88 ('16): 533. (Portraits.) Lit. Digest, 66 ('20): June 17, p. 32 (portrait).

Nation, 109 ('19): 713.

New Repub. 9 ('16): 219; 12 ('17): 109.

Poetry, 2 ('13): 72; 5 ('14): 127; 9 ('17): 202.

R. of Rs. 51 ('15): 432 (portrait).

School and Soc. 7 ('18): 117.

Spec. 126 ('21): 114.

Survey, 45 ('20): 318.

Touchstone, 3 ('18): 70 (portrait).

+Henry Blake Fuller+--novelist, short-story writer.

Born in Chicago, 1857. Educated in Chicago public schools, graded and high; and at a "cla.s.sical academy" in Wisconsin. In Europe, '79-'80, '83, '92, '94, '96-7. Literary editor _Chicago Post_, 1902. Editorials _Chicago Record Herald_, 1910-11 and 1914; at present, _Literary Review_ of the _New York Evening Post_, for the _Freeman_, _New Republic_, _Nation_, etc.

SUGGESTIONS FOR READING

1. Compare Mr. Fuller's stories of Europe with his studies of life in Chicago. What is their relative success? What inferences do you draw?

2. Considering dates, materials, and methods, where do you place Mr.

Fuller's work in the development of the American novel?

3. Before reading _On the Stairs_, cf. _Dial_, 64 ('18): 405.