| Robert Peter Tristram Coffin | |
|---|---|
| File:Robert Peter Tristram Coffin.jpg | |
| Born |
March 18, 1892 Brunswick, Maine |
| Died |
January 20, 1955 (aged 62) Brunswick, Maine |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Poet |
Robert Peter Tristram Coffin (March 18, 1892 – January 20, 1955) was an American poet, educator, writer, editor and literary critic. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1936, he was the Poetry editor for Yankee (magazine).[1]
Early life[]
Born Robert Peter Coffin, the youngest of ten children to James William Coffin, a descendant of Tristram Coffin (settler) and Alice Mary Coombs on a saltwater farm on Sebascodegan Island he earned his undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College in 1913 and then his Masters of Arts from Princeton University in 1918.[1] In 1922 Coffin was awarded the degree of Doctor of Literature by Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1936.[2]
Career[]
Coffin served with the US Army in World War I. When he returned he taught English at Wells Preschool and then as the Pierce Professor at Bowdoin College.[1]
Modeled after his friend and fellow poet Robert Frost's Bread Loaf Writers' Conference he was the co-founder with Carroll Towle of the Writers' Conference of the University of New Hampshire in 1956.[1][3]
Works[]
Robert P.T Coffin also illustrated many of his books.
Death[]
Coffin died of a heart attack in Brunswick, Maine, on January 20, 1955, at the age of 62. He is buried in the Cranberry Horn Cemetery in Harpswell.
Partial bibliography[]
Non-fiction[]
- Book of Crowns and Cottages (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1925)
- Laud, Storm Center of Stuart England (1930)
- The Dukes of Buckingham, Playboys of the Stuart World (1931)
- Portrait of an American (The Macmillan Company, New York, 1931)
- Lost Paradise (Autobiography) (The Macmillan Co. New York, 1934)
- The Kennebec: Cradle of Americans (Farrar & Rinehart, 1937) (First volume in the Rivers of America Series)
- Maine Ballads (The Macmillan Co., New York 1938)
- Primer for America (1943)
- Mainstays of Maine (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1944)
- Maine Doings (Bobbs-Merrill, New York, 1950)
Fiction and poetry[]
- Christchurch (Thomas Seltzer, New York, 1924)
- Dew and Bronze (Albert & Charles Boni, 1927)
- Golden Falcon (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1929)
- The Yoke of Thunder (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1932)
- Ballads of Square-Toed Americans (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1933)
- Strange Holiness (1935)
- Red Sky in the Morning (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1935)
- John Dawn (1936)
- Saltwater Farm. J. J. Lankes (illustration). (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1937.)
- Thomas-Thomas-Ancil-Thomas (1941)
- Book of Uncles (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1942)
- Poems for a Son with Wings (1945)
- People Behave Like Ballads (1946)
- Yankee Coast (1947)
- One Horse Farm (The Macmillan Company, New York, 1949)
- Apples by Ocean (The Macmillan Company, New York, 1950)
- On the Green Carpet (1951)
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Swain, Raymond Charles (1967). A breath of Maine : portrait of Robert P. Tristram Coffin. Boston: Branden Press.
- ↑ "Strange holiness, The 1938 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Poetry". https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/robert-p-tristram-coffin.
- ↑ "New Hampshire's Bread Loaf". https://www.library.unh.edu/exhibits/way-we-were/faculty-friends/faculty.
Sources[]
- Annie Coffin Sanborn (1963). The life of Robert Peter Tristram Coffin and family. University of Michigan. https://books.google.com/books?id=5Q9KAAAAMAAJ&q=Robert+P.+T.+Coffin&dq=Robert+P.+T.+Coffin&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj53Pjh8ujfAhUCsXEKHbz0CKgQ6AEILTAB.
External links[]
- Template:FadedPage
- Coffin collection, George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives, Bowdoin College
- Audio introduction to Coffin's life and work by Coffin scholar Kevin Belmonte
The original article can be found at Robert P. T. Coffin and the edit history here.