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]
Robert Coffin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Robert Peter Tristram Coffin March 18, 1892 Harpswell, Maine |
| Died | January 20, 1955 (aged 62) Harpswell, Maine |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Education | Bowdoin College (BA) Princeton University (MA) Trinity College, Oxford (DLitt) |
Early life edit
Born Robert Peter Coffin, the youngest of ten children to James William Coffin, a descendant of Tristram Coffin 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 Trinity College, Oxford where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1936.[2]
Career edit
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, Coffin was the co-founder with Carroll Towle of the Writers' Conference of the University of New Hampshire in 1956.[clarification needed][3][1]
Coffin also illustrated many of his books.
Coffin died of a heart attack in Harpswell, Maine, on January 20, 1955, at the age of 62. He is buried in the Cranberry Horn Cemetery in Harpswell.
Partial bibliography edit
Non-fiction edit
- 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)
- Captain Abby and Captain John, an Around-the-World Biography (The Macmillan Company, New York, 1939).
- Primer for America (1943)
- Mainstays of Maine (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1944)
- Maine Doings (Bobbs-Merrill, New York, 1950)
Fiction and poetry edit
- 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 edit
- ^ a b c d 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".
- ^ "New Hampshire's Bread Loaf".
Sources edit
- Annie Coffin Sanborn (1963). The life of Robert Peter Tristram Coffin and family. University of Michigan.