Munson, Gorham Bert

#2

This new biography of Robert Frost offers a major reassessment of the life and work of America's premier poet - the only truly "national poet" America has yet produced. Jay Parini began working on this book in 1975, interviewing friends of Frost and working in the poet's archives at Dartmouth, Amherst, and elsewhere. Elegantly, yet simply, he traces the various stages of Frost's colorful life: his boyhood in San Francisco, his young manhood in rural New England, his college days at Dartmouth and Harvard, the years of farming in New Hampshire, the three-year sojourn in England, where he befriended Edward Thomas, Ezra Pound, and other central figures of modern poetry. Following the astounding rise of the poet's fame in America upon his return from England in 1915, Parini shows how Frost gradually evolved from poet to cultural icon, becoming a friend of presidents, a sage whose pronouncements attracted world press attention. Yet Parini always takes the reader back to the poetry itself, which he reads closely, offering a sensitive road map to Frost's remarkable verbal planet.

#3

Lavonia Penn promised her dying mother that she would follow her dream--to go to America to become a missionary. She has plans to live with a missionary family and help them care for their children--but her sister's chronic health problems and the sale of their parent's estate delay those plans? William Armory is an artist and a physician. Orphaned as a baby, he never knew his real parents, but an anonymous benefactor gave him the opportunity to further his education and realize his dream of becoming a doctor. Becoming despondent when terrible rumors swirl about him, he finally discovers the Savior--and a reason to go on. Then Lavonia and William meet. Will Lavonia's attraction to the handsome doctor keep her from fulfilling her promise? And how will the discovery of William's benefactor affect them both?