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 in 1936, he was the Poetry editor for '' Yankee'' 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 ...

and Alice Mary Coombs on a saltwater farm on

Sebascodegan Island Sebascodegan Island or Great Island is an island at the eastern edge of Casco Bay on the Gulf of Maine. It is a part of the town of Harpswell with the mainland portion of Harpswell to its west and Orr's Island and Bailey Island to its south. The ...

he earned his undergraduate degree from

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

in 1913 and then his Masters of Arts from Princeton University in 1918. In 1922 Coffin was awarded the degree of Doctor of Literature by Oxford University where he was a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

. 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

. Modeled after his friend and fellow poet Robert Frost's Bread Loaf Writers' Conference 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 Brunswick, Maine, on January 20, 1955, at the age of 62. He is buried in the Cranberry Horn Cemetery in Harpswell.

Partial bibliography

Non-fiction

*Book of Crowns and Cottages (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1925) *Laud, Storm Center of Stuart England (1930) *The Dukes of Buckingham, Playboys of the Stuart World (1931) *Portrait of an American (The Macmillan Company, New York, 1931) *Lost Paradise (Autobiography) (The Macmillan Co. New York, 1934) *The Kennebec: Cradle of Americans (Farrar & Rinehart, 1937) (First volume in the Rivers of America Series) *Maine Ballads (The Macmillan Co., New York 1938) *Captain Abby and Captain John, an Around-the-World Biography (The Macmillan Company, New York, 1939). *Primer for America (1943) *Mainstays of Maine (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1944) *Maine Doings (Bobbs-Merrill, New York, 1950)

Fiction and poetry

*Christchurch (Thomas Seltzer, New York, 1924) *Dew and Bronze (Albert & Charles Boni, 1927) *Golden Falcon (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1929) *The Yoke of Thunder (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1932) *Ballads of Square-Toed Americans (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1933) *Strange Holiness (1935) *Red Sky in the Morning (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1935) *John Dawn (1936) *Saltwater Farm. J. J. Lankes (illustration). (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1937.) *Thomas-Thomas-Ancil-Thomas (1941) *Book of Uncles (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1942) *Poems for a Son with Wings (1945) *People Behave Like Ballads (1946) *Yankee Coast (1947) *One Horse Farm (The Macmillan Company, New York, 1949) *Apples by Ocean (The Macmillan Company, New York, 1950) *On the Green Carpet (1951)

References

Sources

External links

*
Coffin collection, George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives, Bowdoin College
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coffin, Robert American male poets American Rhodes Scholars Poets from Maine Writers from Brunswick, Maine Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners Bowdoin College alumni 1892 births 1955 deaths Wells College faculty Bowdoin College faculty 20th-century American poets 20th-century American male writers United States Army personnel of World War I Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters