Profile of the Day: Robert Frost

On this day in 1874, American poet Robert Frost was born. Awarded with four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry during his lifetime, Frost is remembered as one of the most celebrated and popular poets of the twentieth century.

Image: Robert Frost / Library of Congress

Although best known for his depictions of rural life in New England, Frost was actually born in San Francisco, California. His father, William Prescott Frost, Jr., was a journalist and editor of the San Francisco Evening Bulletin. After his death in 1885, the family moved across the country to Lawrence, Massachusetts, to be with Frost’s paternal grandparents. The poet’s father was a Southern sympathizer and had even tried to enlist in the Confederate Army during the Civil War but was rejected for being too young. He named his son Robert Lee Frost after Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Frost first made waves for his poetry in England before gaining fame in the United States. In 1924, he won his first of four Pulitzer Prizes. To this day, no other poet has managed to match his record for Pulitzer Prize wins. At the age of 86, the acclaimed poet was invited to read at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy 1961. Frost died two years later on January 29, 1963 at the age of 88. The epitaph on his tombstone is taken from the last line of his poem, “The Lesson for Today.” It reads, “I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.”

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