Leonard Bacon, son of Nathaniel Bacon and Helen Hazard Bacon, was born May 26, 1887, in Syracuse, New York. A poet and literary critic, he was class poet and editor of the Literary Magazine at Yale University, from which he was graduated in 1909. Upon graduation, he taught English at the University of California at Berkeley until 1923, when he left California and returned to Peace Dale, Rhode Island, to concentrate exclusively on his writing. He won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1940 for his work, “Sunderland Capture;” he was also a literary critic for Saturday Review of Literature and Harper’s. He married Martha Stringham in 1912 and was the father of three children: Helen, Alice, and Martha. He died January 1, 1954.
Robert Frost was an American poet born in 1874 and died in 1963. Frost and Bacon met in Franconia, New Hampshire through the Reverend and Mrs. J. Warner Fobes, who owned property near Frost and were relatives of Bacon. Bacon dedicated his 1936 book, “Rhyme and Punishment,” to Frost.
The collection contains two letters written by Robert Frost to Leonard Bacon. In the first letter, dated April 3, 1916, Frost wrote of poems and Bacon’s potential visit that summer. The second letter, dated January 24, 1937, was written as a poem and describes religious and cultural ideologies. The collection also includes typed transcripts of the letters.
Researchers are advised to contact Rhode Island College Special Collections for questions regarding permissions to reproduce, distribute, or otherwise publish material from this collection. Although Rhode Island College has physical ownership of the collection, it does not necessarily hold literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
The collection is open for research.
Robert Frost letters to Leonard Bacon, MSS-0119, Collections, James P. Adams Library, Rhode Island College.
The collection is arranged in chronological order.
The letters were found in Leonard Bacon’s book, “Rhyme and Punishment” (SP COLL PS3503.A196 R5 1936 L. Bacon), which is part of the Leonard Bacon Book Collection in Special Collections, prior to 2022. The Leonard Bacon Book Collection was donated by Martha Bacon Ballinger with the consent of her husband, Ronald B. Ballinger, as well as her sister, Helen Bacon Westlake, and Helen’s husband, J.T. Westlake, in 1968.
The collection was described by Veronica L. Denison, Digital Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, in 2024.
Works used in preparation of inventory: Monteiro, George. “Essay: Robert Frost, Vasco Da Gama and Columbus.” Portuguese American Journal, July 21, 2014. https://portuguese-american-journal.com
The Rhode Island College Special Collections contains a table that was used by Leonard Bacon, as well as a bust of Bacon. Rhode Island College Special Collections also holds the
The collection has not been digitized and is not available online.