Papers, 1910-1955
MC 46
6 Hollinger boxes (2 cu.ft.)
About Robert P. Tristram Coffin:
Robert P. Tristram Coffin (1892-1955) grew up in Brunswick, Maine on a “saltwater farm.” He attended Bowdoin, Princeton, and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar before, as well as after, serving two years in World War I. He taught at Wells College in Aurora, New York from 1921-1934 and eventually returned to Bowdoin College, where he was Pierce Professor in English from 1934 until his death in 1955. Coffin was also associated with the University of New Hampshire as a founder and faculty member of the Towle Writer’s Conference.
Throughout his life, Robert Coffin successfully combined the roles of artist and teacher, poet and prose writer. He authored more than forty books, and was awarded many honors, including the 1936 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for his book, Strange Holiness. In 1945, Coffin was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters for “work of permanent
value in American literature,” and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences granted him membership in 1949.
About the Robert P. Tristram Coffin papers:
The Robert Tristram Coffin Collection includes correspondence, poem and story manuscripts, etchings and sketches done by Coffin, photographs, a recording of Coffin reading his poetry, and various published materials. For more Coffin material, consult Bowdoin College‘s collection.
Folder Listing:
- Correspondence
- Manuscripts
- Art Work
- Miscellaneous
- Printed materials
I. Correspondence
BOX 1
| f.1 |
Coffin to Alma Clark, 1916-1918. |
| f.2 |
Coffin to Alice M. Coffin, 1917-1919. |
| f.3 |
Coffin to “Marmie,” 1918-1919. |
| f.4 |
Correspondence with publishers, 1926-1941. |
| f.5 |
Coffin and George H. Morris, 1951-1954. |
| f.6 |
Coffin to George Roy Elliott, 1954. |
| f.7 |
Miscellaneous letters from Coffin, 1910, 1939, & 1951. |
II. Manuscripts
| f.8 |
Poems: “Another Lincoln,” “Apple-Jordan,” “Apples Harvested by Water,” “Ballad of a Grandfather,” and “A Barn Carol.” |
| f.9 |
Poems: “The Book of Snow,” “A Catalogue of Bright Things,” and “Country Church” |
| f.10 |
Poems: “A Class Day Poem.” |
| f.11 |
Poems: “Dame Dark,” “The Drums of the Kennebec,” “The Fog,” “The Foot of Tucksport,” “Go to the Barn with a Lantern,” and “A House of Happiness.” |
| f.12 |
Poems: “The Housing of the Lambs.” |
| f.13 |
Poems: “Island of Apples,” “Lies,” “A Litany of Jewels,” “The Great Guns of Flanders,” “Nowell,” “Maine Ballads,” “Maine is Up or Down a Hill” and “Man Union.” |
| f.14 |
Poems: “The Miracle,” “Misery Hill,” “The Mormons,” “My Lady of the Cinnamon Roses,” “Poet’s Portrait,” and “Saint Hubert.” |
| f.15 |
Poems: “The Strange Children.” |
| f.16 |
Poems: “Strange Holiness.” |
| f.17 |
Poems: “Summer’s Sweetest at the Dargo,” “Tapestry of Nowell,” “Thank Little Boys,” “There Yet Survived a God,” and “Thomas S. Jones, Jr., Sonneteer of the Saints.” |
| f.18 |
Poems, “Tipsham Foreside.” |
| f.19 |
Poems: “Uncle Frank,” “When Northern Plays,” “Unfinished Symphony,” “The Weather Vane,” “Well Ordered Things,” “The Whales Song,” “The Little Boys of Texas,” and “Where I Took Hold of Life” |
| f.20 |
Stories, “An American for a Father” and “New England Artist at the Stove” |
| f.21 |
Speech, “Maine: A State of Grace,” Commencement Address, University of Maine, June 14, 1937. |
| f.22 |
Lectures, “My Experience with Poetry.” Bates College, July 10-15, 1939. Lectures 2-9 [see Box 6]. |
| f.23 |
Short Story, “Wide Ears,” 1940. |
III. Art Work
| f.24 |
Pen and Ink Sketches. |
| f.25 |
Engravings. |
| f.26 |
Christmas Cards, 1927-1935. |
| f.27 |
Christmas Cards, 1936-1943. |
IV. Miscellaneous
| f.28 |
Notes and Newspaper Clippings. |
| f.29 |
Programs, 1922-1948. |
| f.30 |
“Pilgrimage to the Grave of Robert Peter Tristam Coffin.” |
| f.31 |
Recording, “Strange Holiness,” “The Fog,” and “Lantern in the Snow.” |
| f.32 |
Photographs. |
V. Printed Materials
| f.33 |
Material about Coffin, 1936-1955. |
| f.34 |
“Ashes and Sparks,” 1947. |
| f.35 |
“The Bowdoin Sun.” |
| f.36 |
“Church on the Hill,” 1935. |
| f.37 |
“Epithalamion for a Western World,” for the marriage of Mary-Alice Coffin and Vernon Charles Westcott,
April 29, 1944; and “The First Christmas Tree,” [see Box 6]. |
| f.38 |
“Golden Falcon,” 1927. |
| f.39 |
“The Good End,” Bowdoin College Bulletin, June, 1951. |
| f.40 |
“Gospel According to New England.”
|
| f.41 |
“In Memoriam–Kenneth Clark Morton Sills,” Bowdoin College Bulletin, December, 1954. |
| f.42 |
“In Memoriam–Thomas S. Jones, Jr.,” 1935. |
| f.43 |
“Ivy Ode” or “Planting of the Ivy,” Bowdoin Orient, 1915. |
| f.44 |
Kennebec: Cradle of the Americans, specimen chapter, 1937. “Lambda Jubilee,” [see Box 6]
|
| f.45 |
“Maine: A State of Grace,” The Maine Bulletin, June 14, 1937 [also see box 6] |
| f.46 |
“The Poems that Write the Poet,” Haverford College lecture, March 24, 1953; “Puer Redemptor,” [see Box 6] |
| f.47 |
“The Sesquicentennial Poem,” Bowdoin College Bulletin, August, 1944. |
| f.48 |
“Sir Isaac Coffin, Bart. (1759-1839) Admiral and Prophet.” Newcomen Society of North America, 1951. Strange Holiness, proof, MacMillan Co., 1935 [see Box 6]. |
BOX 2
| f.1 |
Appeared in The American Girl: “Rock Pool” (prose) (August 1934); “Well Ordered Things” (January 1935); “These Things Have Delighted Me” (July 1936); “The Thin World” (prose) (January 1937); “The Brooding Robin” (May 1937); “Coast Church” (July 1937); “Bad Winds Blow Some Good” (October 1940) |
| f.1 |
Appeared in The American Mercury: “What Kind of People Are We?” (November 1943); “Second Boyhood” (July 1947). |
| f.3 |
Appeared in The Atlantic: “February Hens” (March 1944); “Upstairs” (April 1944); “Holy Well” (October 1945). |
| f.4 |
Appeared in The Atlantic: “A Godless Thing” (January 1946); “Afternoon with Goats” (May 1946); “Church on Water” (March 1947). |
| f.5 |
Appeared in The Atlantic: “The Land the Old Ones Keep” (May 1952); “Thunder was Born in the Hay Yard” (September 1943). |
| f.6 |
Appeared in The Bowdoin Quill: “Spring Sketches” (May 1913); “Where the Lost Ships Go” (February 1914); “The Trailmakers” (March 1914); “Clothes-line Philosophy”; “The Song Thrush”; “The Master Instrument” (June 1914); “A Dream”; “To Lucretius”; “Indian Summer” (October 1914); “The Book of Huyles.” |
| f.6 |
Appeared in The Bowdoin Quill: “For the Other Laddie”; “Hunter’s Song”; “Rheims” (December 1914); “The Book of Huyles”; “I Loved Thee, Atthis, Long Ago”; “The Pagan”; “Lament”; “The Night Riders”; “Ydgrasil” (January 1915); “My Little Ship” (February 1915); “Song of a Medieval Glassmaker” (April 1915). |
| f.7 |
Appeared in The Bowdoin Quill: “The Lustre Pitcher” (December 1934). |
BOX 3
| f.1 |
Appeared in Commonweal/Cosmopolitan: “Singers in France” (Commonweal, April 1938); “Bequest” (Cosmopolitan, April 1947). |
| f.2 |
Appeared in Downeast: “Maine Winter” (Winter 1955). |
| f.3 |
Appeared in The Farm Journal: “Wide Ears” (May 1940); “We’ll Never Say Goodbye” (June 1942); “Addition to the Family” (prose) (March 1945); “After Frost” (November 1946); “This is the Map” (August 1947). |
| f.4 |
Appeared in Folio/The Magazine of the Year/Forum: “Three Folios of Indiana” (Folio, May 1941); “Gospel According to New England” (The Magazine of the Year, July 1947); “Apples by the Ocean” (Forum, July 1946); “Red Herring” (Forum, July 1946). |
| f.5 |
Appeared in The Georgia Review: “The Armadillo” (Summer 1952). |
| f.6 |
Appeared in Good Housekeeping: “Five Bare Boys” (October 1941); “Lost Son” (January 1944). |
| f.7 |
Appeared in Good Housekeeping: “Boys are Turned Out” (August 1946); “Boys Afire” (October 1947). |
| f.8 |
Appeared in Good Housekeeping: “Lost Room” (December 1947). |
| f.9 |
Appeared in Gourmet: “A Berry Good Time” (prose) (July 1943); “Abenaki: Clambake” (prose) (August 1943); “First Catch Your Eel” (prose) (September 1943); “Log of a Seagoing Farm” (prose) (January 1953). |
BOX 4
| f.1 |
Appeared in Gourmet: “The Log of a Seagoing Farm” (prose) (February, March and April 1953). |
| f.2 |
Appeared in Gourmet: “Log of a Seagoing Farm” (prose) (May, June, August, September, October, and November 1953). |
| f.3 |
Appeared in Gourmet: “Log of a Seagoing Farm” (prose) (December 1953); “The Snow Farm” (January, February – includes obituary, March and April 1955). |
| f.4 |
Appeared in Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism: “Poetry Today and Tomorrow” (Vol. 3 no. 9-10) (prose). |
| f.5 |
Appeared in The Library Lantern (June 1939), publication of Hamilton-Smith Library of the University of New Hampshire: review of C.P., 1939. |
| f.6 |
Appeared in Life Magazine: “Maine Winter Poems” (February 12, 1945) [see Box 6]. |
| f.7 |
Appeared in Murphy’s Tavern: “The Democratic-Republican Cheese” (Summer 1946); “Unfinished Symphony.” |
| f.8 |
Appeared in National Parent-Teacher: “Last Day” (prose) (June 1946); “The Prize Pumpkin: A Thanksgiving Story” (Nov. 1946); “Old Law” (December 1946); “The Tree” (February 1947); “Poet” (May 1947). |
| f.9 |
Appeared in National Parent-Teacher: “Christmas Came in Fur” (December 1947); “For my First Grandson” (January 1948); “House of the Sky” (February 1948); “Coast Houses” (November 1951); “Youngest Friend” (April 1952). |
| f.10 |
Appeared in National Parent-Teacher: “New England Stone Walls” (December 1952); “Always Youthful Things” (March 1954); “American Boy” (May 1954); “Little Boy’s Lost in Love” (September 1954); “The Cattle Kneel” (March 1955); “Man’s Book” (June 1955). |
| f.11 |
Appeared in The Near East/Yearbook of the New England Society/Newsweek: “Athens in Winter” (The Near East, December 1954); “Poetry as Part of my Life” Speech By Professor R.P.T. Coffin, Pierce Professor of English, Bowdoin College (reprinted Yearbook of the New England Society, 1937); Obituary (R.P.T. Coffin). |
| f.12 |
Old Farmer’s Almanac, 1937, 1939. |
| f.13 |
Appeared in The Peabody Reflector/Prologue; “The Revolutions in Modern Poetry” (January 1952); “Local Color in Modern Poetry”; “The Course in Creative Writing” (December 1947). |
BOX 5
| f.1 |
Appeared in Saturday Review: “Doubled Goods” (November 1948); “Tuna by Night” (March 1949); “Yellow-leg Plovers” (April 1949); “The Sun and Moon Stand Still” (April 1949). |
| f.2 |
Appeared in Saturday Review: “I and the Other Poets” (July 22, 1950); “They Rowed, They Sang” (April 14, 1951); “Naked Night” (March 15, 1952); “Bald Eagle” (May 24, 1952). |
| f.3 |
Appeared in Science Illustrated: “The Rainbow” (September 1944); “Terrible and Exact Geometrics” (January 1945). |
| f.4 |
Appeared in The Southwest Review: “Granite’s a Model” (Summer 1945); “The Red Drummer” (Fall 1945); “Solitude” (Fall 1946). |
| f.5 |
Appeared in The Southwest Review: “A Man Who Measured Out Music” (Spring 1946); “The Secret.” |
| f.6 |
Appeared in Tomorrow: “My Favorite Forgotten Book” (prose) (September 1948); “Maine Enters Literature” (prose) (October 1948); “The House Leans” (November 1948); “This is the Poem” (December 1948). |
| f.7 |
Appeared in The Tuftonian: “The Fog” (June 1936); “This is My Country”; “Tipsham Foreside”; “Jug Below the Stairs” (November 1940); “The First Christmas Tree” (January 1942). |
| f.8 |
Appeared in Yankee: “Lesson Outdoors” (May 1947); “Red Robin” (May 1952). |
BOX 6
| f.1 |
Lectures 2-9, undated: “The Forest”; “The Ship”; “Country Things”; “The Seasons”; “The Farm I”; “The Farm II”; “Schoolhouse and Church” and “The Village.” |
| f.2 |
“The First Christmas Tree,” poem and print. |
| f.3 |
“Lambda Jubilee”; “Puer Redemptor.” |
| f.4 |
Press Release on “Maine: A State of Grace.” |
| f.5 |
Strange Holiness, proof, Macmillan Co., 1935. |
| f.6 |
“Maine Winter,” Life, February 12, 1945. |
