Robert P. T. Coffin


Robert Peter Tristram Coffin 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.

Early Life

Born Robert Peter Coffin, the youngest of ten children to James William Coffin, a descendant of Tristram Coffin and Alice Mary Coombs on a saltwater farm on Sebascodegan Island he earned his undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College in 1915 and then his Masters of Arts from Princeton University in 1916.. In 1921 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 College and then as the Pierce Professor at Bowdoin College.
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 1938.

Works

Robert P.T Coffin also illustrated many of his books.

Death

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