The poet's granddaughter refutes the ``crude psychoanalytical'' interpretation of Frost proffered by Lawrance Thompson in his contentious biography and offers instead a picture of a generous, responsible, and playful father-poet. Drawing on family papers and the childhood notebooks and artwork of Robert Frost's four children between 1905 and 1915, Francis (the daughter of Frost's eldest, Lesley) captures the dynamics of a literary family, the ``symbiotic relationship'' among parents and children, the energy, nurturing, and fantasy that characterized the way Frost awakened the artist in each child. The book covers the early years in Derry, NH, and then in England, where Frost was first discovered: This was the ``halcyon'' period when, educated at home, the children were encouraged to write, draw, express themselves. They produced gift albums, pictures, poems, stories recounting adventures, games, scenery, and friendships in a ``haphazard'' and disorderly household where Frost did most of the cooking, teaching, and playing. From 1912 to 1915, the children, their friends, and parents contributed to a magazine they called the Bouquet that included pieces by Edward Thomas, the English journalist-critic and Frost's closest friend (the Frosts brought his son to America at the outbreak of WW I, in which Thomas was killed). This idyllic decade takes on particular poignancy in the context of the personal losses that followed, emphasized in the concluding chapter: Frost, a widower of 83, having lost a daughter to tuberculosis and a son to suicide, returns to England to accept honorary degrees from Oxford and Cambridge and to visit the cottages where he had lived as a young father and undiscovered poet. A credible and unsentimental story that illuminates Frost's personality, the quality of his life, the sources of his creativity, and the value of artistic education. (Illustrations and photos)
Pub Date: May 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-8262-0945-9
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Univ. of Missouri
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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