Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-09-15
Frost Letters
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THE LETTERS OF ROBERT
FROST TO LOUIS UN-
TERMEYER. With Com
mentary by Louis Inter
meyer. (Holt. Rinehart q
Winston; SD
This book all but brings
Robert Frost back from the
grave. Here he is, in these
letters to Louis Untermeyer
('my friend and best be-
liever"), just as he is remem-
bered by three generations Of
his doting countrymen---
plain-spoken. pithy, comic,
cryptic, piercing and utterly
himself.
The publication Of the let
tiers. which cover SO of his al
most S8 years, is, to use an
often-ihvoked, seldom valid
term-a literary event. The
letters themselves are ex-
ceptional, not ''literary"-he
was close to Untermeyer, and
he eschewed the lofty line.
They constitute the autobi-
ography that Frost would
never write Most impor-
family, they reveal the sources
Of his granite strength: The
land, his wife, his friends, his
children, his belief In him
self as a poet. his persevering
jealousy Of other poets. his
antic, unquenchable humor.
ALI recall his wryness, which
was his trademark. Now we
find he was q punSter,
parodist. and general verbal
cut-up.
Robert Frost won the Pull
itzer Prize for poetry four
times. He was all but
swamped in acclaim in his
later years. It is striking how
little his honors and his pub
lie figure in these letters to
his dear friend. He hated to
be misunderstood; he writhed
when lesser poets were
praised. He was merciless,
and often hilarious. In his
judgment Of his contempo-
raries. But in the early '20s he
listed what mattered to him
as Fishing bees poetry apples
nine rooms and . high
school"
He Never Changed
He bought many farms in
New England In search Of
those realities. There Is no
evidence he ever really cared
about anything else. well,
to hell with nearly every
thing-with everything but
poetry, politics and true re-
ligion-and Q few friends and
relatives very few" For
him the ideal was "easy
ties and slow commerce."
He enjoyed and rode his
evaporation. Amy Lowell
got on his nerves. CT don't
believe she is anything but
q fake.") Edwin Arlington
Robinson was IAN enervated
old soak" OF Elinor Wylie.
he said "the falser she was
the truer she sang" The
Poetry Society Of America
drove him to wrathful OUT
bursts. When he read q story
Of Villa Gathers he said: II
wept for the sheer perfec-
ton"
His life was hard. His mar
rage was true. OF his wife
Elinor he wrote, when she
was Ill land he asked Inter
meyer to destroy the letter.:
"She has been the unspoken
half Of everything ] wrote"
They shared much grief.
Their favorite daughter Mar
jorie died an agonizing
death ("It was as If her ruiz
ing passion must have been
to be wise and good . -;
their only son. Carol, COM
mitted suicide ("I took the
wrong way with him~; an
other daughter. Irma, be-
came mentally Ill. When
Mrs. Frost died in 1888, the
poet was lost. He apparently
almost joined the church in
his search for consolation,
but in 1912, he reported to
Untermeyer, II believe I am
safely secular till the last go
down"
The last years, with the
excellent care Of his secre-
tary, Kathleen Morrison,
went more serenely. Until
the end, he Knocked. laughed.
ridiculed himself.
There are great riches
here. A letter on style
("Style in prose or verse is
that which indicates now Jne
writer takes himself and
what he Is saying') Is as
Illuminating as anything
ever written on the subject.
A lecture to Untermeyer on
morality CMr. Untermeyer
was married four times In
the course Of the correspond
ence): what ! dread most
now is that you viii go on
the assumption that though
1t was folly and landed you
in tragedy. 1t was on the way
somewhere and somehow
prepared you for greater and
fuller life. Shut up. To hell
with such comforts. 1t was
all time and energy lost as
I said before We can
make raids and excursions