Robert Peter Tristram Coffin collection

Collection

Identifier: M037

Staff Only
Please use the Collection Organization section below to place requests.

Scope and Content

The collection contains correspondence; drafts, proofs and notes of books, poems, essays, plays and lectures; notes, examinations and other material relating to teaching at Bowdoin, Wells, and other institutions; personal records outlining his education (grade school through Oxford University) and his personal life; documents both personal and professional; recordings of his poems; and photographs. Major correspondents include members of the Coffin family and of the Bowdoin College staff; letters from literary and artistic colleagues are also included.

Dates

Creation: 1842-1989, undated
Creation: Majority of material found within 1910 - 1955

Access Restrictions

No restrictions.

Copyright:

Bowdoin College does not hold copyright to the works of Robert Peter Tristram Coffin. The literary agent for the Coffin estate is Alison D. Coffin. Please contact sca@bowdoin.libanswers.com for additional information.

Biographical/Historical Note

Robert P.T. Coffin (1892-1955), writer, professor and Pulitzer Prize winning poet, was born and educated in Brunswick, Maine. He attended Bowdoin College (Class of 1915), Princeton (A.M. 1916) and, as a Rhodes Scholar, Oxford University (A.B. 1920); while in England, he served to 2nd Lieutenant of the U.S. Army. Coffin began his teaching career as instructor and, later, professor of English at Wells College in Aurora, N.Y. (1921-1934), where he ran the English honors course. He returned to Bowdoin as Pierce Professor of English (1934-1955), was a visiting lecturer at several colleges and universities from the 1930s through 1950s, and a Fulbright scholar at the University of Athens in 1953-54.

Coffin is best known as a writer of more than three dozen works of prose, poetry and history, and as the winner of the 1936 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his book, Strange Holiness. He lectured widely and was frequently invited to read from his popular poetry. Coffin married Ruth Phillip in 1918; they had four children, and both sons attended Bowdoin.

Extent

49.25 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Papers of Robert Peter Tristram Coffin (1892-1955), writer, Bowdoin College Pierce Professor of English (1934-1955), and Pulitzer Prize winning poet, including correspondence; drafts, proofs and notes of books, poems, essays, plays and lectures; notes, examinations and other material relating to teaching, and biographical materials.