John's Connection to Robert Frost
John graduated from Amherst College in 1949. He taught English there from 1953 to 1956, and from 1957 to 1959. Ted Baird was a mentor of John's, a Professor of English who taught English at Amherst from 1927 to 1969 and created Amherst's freshman composition course. Robert Frost taught English at Amherst from 1926 to 1938. G. Armour Craig taught English at Amherst from 1940 to 1985. Much of John's career involved teaching composition, following in Baird's footsteps.
Baird and his wife lived in a "Usonian" house on a wooded lot in Amherst, the only Frank Lloyd Wright building in Massachusetts. John, Flo, and David were occasional visitors to that house in the 1950s. As a student at Amherst in the 1980s, Robin also visited.
Robin Varnum wrote a book, Fencing with Words, about Baird's teaching, citing a number of teachers he influenced, including John and several colleagues, including Bill Pritchard, a longtime family friend, and Benjamin DeMott, who was a friend and neighbor in Amherst.
Bill Pritchard edited two books of Baird's posthumously published writings, The Most of It, Essays on Language and the Imagination, and English at Amherst: a history. Pritchard also published his own story, English Papers, a Teaching Life.
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Ted Baird, G. Armour Craig, and Robert Frost
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Ted Baird, G. Armour Craig, and Robert Frost
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Holiday Greetings from Robert Frost December 1949 cover page
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Holiday Greetings from Robert Frost December 1949
On a Tree Fallen Across the Road
inscribed title page
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Holiday Greetings from Robert Frost December 1949
On a Tree Fallen Across the Road
page 1
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Holiday Greetings from Robert Frost December 1949
On a Tree Fallen Across the Road
page 2
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Holiday Greetings from Robert Frost December 1949, enclosure
What Fifty Said, a poem handwritten and signed by Robert Frost
When I was young my teachers were the old.
I gave up fire for form till I was cold.
I suffered like a metal being cast.
I went to school to age to learn the past.
Now when I am old my teachers are the young.
What can't be molded must be cracked and sprung.
I strain at lessons fit to start a suture.
I go to school to youth to learn the future.
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