Robert Peter Tristram Coffin (March 18, 1892 – January 20, 1955) was an American poet, educator, writer, editor and literary critic. Awarded the
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually for Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first presented in 1922, and is given for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, published ...
in 1936, he was the Poetry editor for ''
Yankee
The term ''Yankee'' and its contracted form ''Yank'' have several interrelated meanings, all referring to people from the United States. Its various senses depend on the context, and may refer to New Englanders, residents of the Northern United S ...
'' magazine.
Early life
Born Robert Peter Coffin, the youngest of ten children to James William Coffin, a descendant of
Tristram Coffin (settler)
Tristram Coffin (or Coffyn) (c. 1609 – 2 October 1681) was an immigrant to Massachusetts from England.
In 1659 he led a group of investors that bought Nantucket from Thomas Mayhew for thirty pounds and two beaver hats.
He became a prominent c ...
and Alice Mary Coombs on a saltwater farm on
Sebascodegan Island he earned his undergraduate degree from
Bowdoin College in 1913 and then his Masters of Arts from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
in 1918.
In 1922 Coffin was awarded the degree of Doctor of Literature by Oxford University where he was a
Rhodes Scholar. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1936.
Career
Coffin served with the US Army in World War I. When he returned he taught English at
Wells Preschool and then as the Pierce Professor at
Bowdoin College.
Modeled after his friend and fellow poet Robert Frost's
Bread Loaf Writers' Conference The Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is an author's conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1926, it has been called by ''The New Yorker'' "the oldest and most ...
he was the co-founder with Carroll Towle of the Writers' Conference of the University of New Hampshire in 1956.
Coffin also illustrated many of his books.
Coffin died of a heart attack in Brunsw