24 College View Avenue
Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

March 1st 1977

Dear John,

I am very glad that you have written to me and
only regret that you did not do so when first this misunder-
standing occurred. I specially mentioned it to Rebecca
West because I knew she would tell you. Then, when I knew
that you were aware of my feelings, I was surprised not to
have some kind of letter from you explaining things. It did
not seem to me that I ought to write: I took your silence
as a sign that you felt you were to blame and had nothing
to say about it.

However the matter is over now and I only want
you to know that so far as I am concerned I shall forget it
and never allude to it again. Also I bear you no grudge.
Let's both wash it out.

About the Moody book - I should like to do it
and if you are not in a great hurry I will do it as soon as
I can - probably for publication in the Fall, with one proviso
that Mrs Moody agrees. She had been a good friend to me
since I came to America and I anticipate no difficulty with
her. Much of the biographical material must come from her
and Robinson. I don't want to do the book unless I can
make a really good job of it. Without her co-operation it
would be merely makeshift in the biographical part. The
criticism, of course, is anybody's right. I am writing to her
and will let you know the result. Will you let me know
what terms you propose? I will come in to see you when I
am in New York.

Are you yet the proud father? And if so of what?
I defer congratulations until I hear the actual news. But
please give our greetings to your wife. And don't let's have
any more misunderstandings. I detest them.

Yours,

personal

Branch Office - OPMG
Room 712 - 50 Broadway
New York 4, New York
24 March 1945

Mr. Thomas Hornsby Ferril
2123 Downing Street
Denver 5, Colorado

Dear Tom:

Your letter made me recall with a certain nostalgia the two
days I spent at Lyons topping sugar beets as an emergency worker
three years ago. I can still feel the pain in my back. Since then
I haven't had any real exercise, but early rising, late getting to
bed, and interminable work and travelling seem to prevent me from
getting fat. I was sorry indeed to miss seeing you in New York,
but I am glad that you were able to get help elsewhere. Needless
to say, we here would have done everything in our power to help you.
I am asking Washington to tell me more about your film and to send
a print to me for screening, which I hope to see soon.

This is a new and strange, but intensely interesting, life.
For over two years I have scarcely read a book or seen a motion
picture, except in the beaten way of Army work, which has meant
seeing dozens of films and reading hundreds of books.

In Washington we have seen something of Bob and Amy Sturms
who have a house not far away from ours; so we haven't been alto-
gether without news of Colorado. Incidentally, we have just sold
our house on University Avenue and are planning to build a smaller
one when the right time comes. I am not surprised that Gus went
to the University of Chicago. The job sounds absolutely right for
him. Like many of us at Boulder during the later years, he had
too much administrative work to do and not enough time for teaching
and research. He took it more cheerfully than most, but it must
have been somewhat frustrating.

I have seen some of your pieces in Harper's and a poem here
and there in the magazines, but haven't yet set eyes on the new
volume. The reviews I saw were all very gratifying indeed and I
am sure you made no mistake in going to Harper's. It is only a pity
you weren't able to shake free of the Yale Series years ago after
it had served its first purpose.

17 March 1945

MEMORANDUM For Captain Richards

1. Attached is a letter from Tom Ferril which has been seen in Film Branch. Englander can tell you of his interest in the matter.

2. Will you please write to Tom, telling him that his letter has been awaiting my return from all over the place and that I had to leave again before I could dictate a reply. Send him my best wishes, say that I will write when I get back again, that I was sorry we missed each other when he was here and would have been glad to help him, as far as might have lain in our power.

3. Your letter of course should be personal, like his, not official. Please return this letter to me.

20 March 1945

Dear Tom:

Ted was in the office Saturday just long enough to read your letter from Ohio. He did not have time to look into the matter that you brought up and write a reply. He asked me to write you and express his regret that you missed each other when you were in New York. He will write when he gets back from Washington. I know he is very much interested in motion pictures for prisoners of war.

I too was sorry that we could not get together while you were in town. On the following Monday I found out you had been at Harper's, and called up immediately to try and get in touch with you, but you had already left for Washington. I thought Chris had written concerning our move to New York but I guess she had only sent you a card.

When I was in the Pentagon last summer I saw Ted frequently and after he got this new assignment he requested my services. I have been with him on this job since last September. I can't tell you much about it but Ted has a very important assignment which is right down his alley and he is doing an excellent job.

Give my best regards to Helen and ask her what happened to our subscription to the Rocky Mountain Herald. No copies received for several months and we do miss it. Give my regards also to your Mother and to Loper.

May 4, 1942

Dr. Francis M. Froelicher
Fountain Valley School
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Dear Dr. Froelicher:

You will probably soon receive a letter from Alastair Miller, the son of my old friend Alec Miller, the sculptor, who has for many years lived part of the time in California and the other part in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire. Alec was one of the group of artists who surrounded F. L. Griggs.

I have not met the so called Alastair Miller, but I have heard that he is almost as attractive and charming as his father--which is to say a great deal. It struck me that you might be short of suitable masters during the coming year. Alastair is sending you his record. He went to one of the better public schools and then to Oxford. He is married. Apparently he had an attack of infantile paralysis in his childhood. I understand that he is perfectly healthy and even athletic, but he can't be called for the draft because one of his legs is very slightly shorter than the other. Anyway, I thought you might be interested to know about him.

I look forward to being with you in June.

14 December 1944

Dr. Francis Mitchell Froelicher
Fountain Valley School
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Dear Froelicher:

Many thanks indeed for your letter and especially for the copy you enclosed of Charlie Colt's letter. I took the liberty — and hope you don't mind — of sending a copy to Major General Frederick H. Osborn, Director of the Information and Education Division at the War Department, who is my old chief and the top officer responsible for the morale and orientation of troops, as I know he would be deeply interested. Colt is obviously a splendid young man and you and the school must feel very proud.

I had to go to Harvard on duty, where I stayed with Howard Mumford Jones, just after your letter came. He and others seem to think that the V-programs at Harvard will be abandoned in the very near future and that the University may revert to a two-semester system. In that event it may be impossible for Peter to start there in June. Howard thought, however, that if it is possible to start in June, he should do so. It appears that all Harvard's plans at the moment are most unsettled. You may wish to inquire of them direct about this.

I sent your letter and enclosures on to Natalie, who is still in Washington. I was transferred to New York some months ago and am now Director of the Prisoner of War Special Projects Division with offices at 50 Broadway. I should be most sorry to miss you in Washington, although Natalie will most certainly still be there. If you should be in New York, please let me know a little ahead of time and let's dine together or at least try to meet.

I am looking forward to seeing Peter here in New York on Sunday. With the warmest regards to Mrs. Froelicher and all friends at the school,

282 Henry Street

Brooklyn N.Y.

April 16 1929

Dear Robert,

I am enclosing your contract which Longmans have
just sent me from England. In their covering letter they say-

"We will certainly do all that is possible to sell such a
collected edition of Mr Frost's works, but the publication
is really a form of investment rather than a speculation
for a quick return. As this is our view we are anxious to
have a share in any permissions to reproduce the poems in
other works. We realise that we cannot do this in all
cases, as many of the poems have appeared in other publishers
imprints and if they possess the rights they are not likely
to give them up. We have therefore suggested that in so far
as the author possesses the rights in his poems he should
transfer to us the exclusive right of publication."

This, of course, refers to anthology permissions. I take it
Longmans would wish to share any fees for such permissions. This
is usual with poetry in England. The letter goes on -

"I am glad to hear that Heinemann will make no difficulty
about granting us permission to issue in our collected
edition such poems as they have issued separately for Frost.
The fact however that other of the poems have been pub-
lished by firms now defunct does not necessarily give
Frost the right to issue them again. (This is publishers'
over-caution E. C.) However, all these difficulties, and
they may be considerable, will have to be gone into when
the collection (sic) is made.

Personally, I think that the only real obstacle will be Heinemann's
co-operation. Longmans can arrange that in London if you help
with Evans. I understood you to say that he (Evans) would not
be unreasonable. Grant Richards and the Butt firm need not, I
think, be worried about.

Longmans have asked me to discuss this draft agreement
with you, and, when you have signet it, return it to them. If
any discussion is necessary perhaps we can meet in New York some
day soon? By and large, I advise you to accept: it seems to
me a very good contract and I feel sure that Longmans are
sincerely interested in the book and mean to do their very best
by it. Do send me a note soon so that I can let them know.

We are thinking of taking Mr Cole's little house opposite
Mrs Gilchrist's at Arlington for June to September. It is very
cheap -only $100.00 for the season. I can't remember whether
there's any water to swim in at Arlington and we're trying to
find out if the house has a garden. Natalie may be going up
to see it one day soon. Will you be at Shaftesbury shortly ?

Boulder, Colorado

November 20, 1935

Mr. Robert Frost
Amherst College
Amherst, Mass.

Dear Robert:

We are planning to send out the first of a series
of Bulletins to all Members of the 1935 Writers' Con-
ference, and hope to include brief messages in the
Christmas issue, from the leaders of the 1935 sessions.
This would be sadly incomplete without a word or two
from you. Wolfe and Warren, and the Burnetts are all
sending something. Everyone would be delighted, not
least myself, if you would let us have some brief mes-
sage--even if it were nothing more than a sentence or two
that I could quote as coming from a letter to me. Won't
you please do this for us?

I have been meaning to write to you at some length,
about recent happenings here, resulting from the
troubles last summer. The President has insisted on
entire reorganization of the Conference. It has been
taken away from the Extension Division, and will work,
in the future, under the auspices of a carefully se-
lected faculty Committee, with the President himself in
the Chair. The Committee consists of Derham, Reynolds,
the Comptroller, the new Dean of Law, Peterson, and
others. The President asked me to undertake complete
responsibility for the Direction of the Conference. And
we had our first meeting a few days ago. Campbell re-
meins with the Extension Division and, I am told, does
not feel that he has been unfairly treated. As a matter
of fact, the powers here feel that he has been very con-
siderately and generously treated. This whole business
has caused me a great deal of heart-searching and regret.
As the situation stands now, however, I can't feel that
any injustice has been done, or that I have anything with
which to reproach myself. I want you to know how I feel
because the conversation we had about the Conference sit-
uation when you were here was so hearty and brief that I
was left at the end, wondering a little, if you thought
I had been, in some ways culpable and ungenerous. This,
of course, may have been a quite mistaken impression on
my part--I very much hope so.

But Campbell, I know, has somehow got the impres-
sion that your personal sympathies lay with him. I

Mr. Robert Frost

-2-

11/20/85

should be unhappy to believe that.

At all events, I'm setting out now to make the Con-
ference as good as I can. The President has given me a
very free hand, and I am very much hoping that Hervey
will come out for it next summer as he is, at present,
disposed to do. I wish you would say any good words you
can to him, about Boulder. Lowe writes that you and
Hervey will both be at the Miami Institute, in the near
future.

I have wanted, for some time, to tell you how
sorry I am if your summer visit here was in any way made
additionally painful by the Conference undercurrents. I
know you were harassed and unhappy, and it made me miser-
able to think that, even innocently, my difficulties had
added anything to your burden. My one hope is that most
of this letter is quite unnecessary.

It looks as if we shall be settling down here, more
or less permanently. Natalie went back to New York for
a month in September, in a vain attempt to sell the house
at Ossining. Luckily, we have just rented it for a
year, and that will give us time to look round. She
sends her love with mine, to you and Ellinor and all the
family. We both hope to see you all again soon. I
need not add that if you feel like coming out again next
summer, or any other summer, everyone here will be de-
lighted--only let me know in some time.

Yours,

1313 University Avenue
Boulder, Colorado

August 29 1937

Dear Robert: I have owed you a letter for more than a year and the accumulation of news is now too great to be detailed. My silences, I hope, mean no more than yours. But I was a little puzzled to know how to reply to your last letter at the time it came. You have probably forgotten it; but I had sent you Howard Jones couplets written at the 1936 Conference here and in your reply you said something about a clipping from the Saturday Review which referred to your lectures here in '35. I looked it up and it was very silly. Someone in Boulder, you said, had sent you the clipping and you had assumed that I was the sender; but I wasn't. Perhaps it was John Bartlett. On top of that, before I had time to reply, I heard indirectly that you were very ill with a nervous breakdown - a report which I later learned was untrue, but not until a good deal of time had gone by. Jones gave me a message from you a few weeks ago when he came out to the Conference and I glean occasional news of you from visitors to Boulder; but nothing can really take the place of face-to-face talk. I very much want to see you and hope that the suggestions to follow will make that possible.

I have spent several weeks during the past three summers at the State Agricultural College at Logan, Utah. President Peterson there is a good friend of mine, a fine fellow whom, I think, you would like. He has several times tried to get you to go there and now he has definitely commissioned me to ask if you will be their chief speaker at the College's fiftieth anniversary next June 8 or 9. I should have written to you several weeks ago about this, but the Writers' Conference intervened and I was much too busy to think of other things. I am sure you would like the place and the people as well as the occasion. The fee can be anything reasonable that you suggest; but they must know in the very near future. It may be that the plan will fit in with other things, especially if you and Elinor want to be near Montana. I think the Logan people will be glad to pay $400 to $500 if you come. At the same time wouldn't you like to come here and give the University Commencement address next June 14? President Norlin has asked me, on his behalf, to invite you. The usual fee, I think, is $250.00; but that can be taken up later. We shall all be delighted if you will come. Then again, if you would care to stay in these parts until early August and spend ten days with the Writers' Conference there is a further $500.00 available for two evening lectures and a few consultations with the members of the poetry group. The dates would be approximately July 28 to August 7. However, there is no need to decide about the Conference until later. Please do let me know as soon as you possibly can about Logan and the Boulder commencement.

I have been very remiss in failing to write to you about *A Further Range*, but I lectured on it to the whole University last October and hope I did it justice. It seems to me to contain a number of poems better than anything in your previous work - and I know of no higher phrase than that. I am still gloating over the Striker and the Tramps and Cloudburst to mention only three. This is very unselfish of me really, because every time I read your work I despair of my own. And I should have written to congratulate you on the Harvard degree which I was ironically delighted to read about.

We are pretty well settled here now and have just bought a large
house of ten rooms (including one that I hope you and Elinor will
occupy) on the edge of the campus. I am beginning to write again
and hope to have something good to show you when we meet. Natalie
and the children are all well though we had a very bad winter last
year and Natalie spent several weeks in hospital in New York. This
year's Conference was the best yet. Sherwood Anderson did a fine
job for us and Howard Jones was an absolute saviour. You wouldn't
know the Conference nowadays, though I say it as shouldn't. We had
120 people from 32 different States and the standard of work was
extraordinarily high, even in the poetry which Ransom led. Do you
understand his metaphysics ? Damned if I do; but he's a most
attractive person. Burnett was a bad disappointment (between our-
selves) and Ford was too ill to be much help though he did put on
a chef's cap and cook one of the best dinners I have ever eaten.

This is a very prosy letter, but I'm exhausted after a very hard
summer and too little sleep. Do let me hear from you very soon.
Norlin sends his greetings; and Natalie too to Elinor and all the
family (Jones tells wonderful stories of Prescott) along with mine.
And do come.

Yours,

October 21, 1937

Mr. Robert Frost
Amherst, Mass.

Dear Robert:

Natalie and I have felt very distressed to hear from you
of Elinor's illness, and I owe you an apology for unwit-
tingly pestering you about trivialities at such a time.
I do hope that she is now rapidly recovering, and that
everything will be well. Please give her our very best
love and good wishes for a really satisfactory conval-
escence.

Everyone here is extremely sorry that you cannot be
with us here for Commencement or for the summer. I may
be coming East during the Easter vacation and very much
hope to see you then.

There is no time now for more than this note, but I
will write again very soon.

Yours