Scheduled Events
Inviting guest speakers to Derry to celebrate the work of America's foremost poet is a tradition at the farm. Lectures are held in the Farm's barn theater beginning at 2:00 pm and are open to the public free of charge.
Programs are made possible by grants from the New Hampshire Humanities Council and are sponsored by the Division of Parks and Recreation, the Robert Frost Homestead Trustees, and the Friends of the Robert Frost Farm.
The Frost Farm, a national historic landmark, is located on NH Route 28, 1-3/4 miles south of the traffic circle in Derry, NH.
For more information, call (603) 432-3091.
Programs are free (except appraisals) and open to the public.
The Robert Frost Farm
Literary Series
Summer 2016
SUNDAY JULY 17th 2 PM "Farm Women and Robert Frost's Poetry"
Priscilla Paton, affiliated with St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, will
talk about the pleasures and hardships of women in the poetry of Robert Frost. While Frost’s writing often
offers an invitation to another—“you come too”—and the possibility that “earth return[s] their love,”
there are also times of despair in a woman’s life ‘from doing/Things over and over that just won’t stay done.”
Paton, who received a BA from Bowdoin College and Ph.D. from Boston College, will draw on the life of the
Frost’s wife Elinor, agrarian history, and her own experiences growing up on a dairy farm in Maine.
Priscilla Paton has published numerous articles on Frost and the book Abandoned New England:
Landscape in the Works of Homer, Frost, Hopper, Wyeth, and Bishop.
SUNDAY JULY 24th 2 PM "Rob Frost, Farmer and Botanist"
RICK HOLMES, historian, author and Robert Frost scholar will chronicle the early years of Robert Frost’s
residence in Derry focusing on his successes and failures operating one of the last one-man farms in town and his
developing passion for identifying and collecting various flowers and ferns indigenous to the area. Holmes’s
talk is the result of many years of research from which he has unearthed a wealth of new information not
included in any previously published biography of the poet. Rick has written 6 books on local history,
authored over 400 articles published in area newspapers, and is nearing completion of an exciting new
Robert Frost biography. Rick was the chairman of the Derry Heritage Commission for several decades and
the founder of the Derry History Museum. He is currently the town’s official historian. In 2015, Rick was
honored by the N.H. Humanities as one of the “40 over 40” who have done the most to promote the State's
cultural heritage.
SUNDAY July 31st 2 PM "Listening to Robert Frost"
Robert Frost’s first public reading took place just a few miles from the Derry Farm, in the Association
Hall in 1912. He may have been too nervous to read “A Tuft of Flowers” to the gathering, but in the course of becoming a
great poet he also went on to become one of the great public speakers of his day. Indeed, hearing Robert Frost speak
about and recite his poems used to be a readily available experience for those living in or near college towns throughout
the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s, and many surviving audio recordings preserve portions of the experience. We’ll listen
to Robert Frost on a few of these recordings together to discover what they mean for us today. LISA SEALE,
associate editor of The Robert Frost Review and past president of the Robert Frost Society, is emeritus
associate vice chancellor for academic affairs and professor of English, University of Wisconsin Colleges.
SUNDAY AUGUST 7th 2 PM "My Friendship with Robert Frost"
JACK W. C. HAGSTROM will talk about the evolution of his friendship with Robert Frost, how that
friendship became close and personal, and the extent to which it has affected his life over these many years. Additionally, he
will discuss the evolution of the Robert Frost Symposium, held jointly last year at Pinkerton Academy and at the Derry Farm.
Dr. Hagstrom grew up in Europe before the Second World War, attended Amherst College and subsequently was graduated from Cornell
University Medical College in New York City. His career as a pathologist (always associated with a university and medical college)
involved teaching medical students and doing laboratory and clinical research. The discipline took him all over the world focusing
on the pathology of tropical diseases. He ended his formal career as Professor of Pathology at Columbia University. Since his
retirement from medicine, he has co-authored four bibliographies of contemporary poets and is currently working on another.
SUNDAY August 21st 2 PM "Antiques and Collectibles Appraisals”
HERC PAPPACHRISTOS is back by popular demand. Come join the fun and have
your treasured items assessed by an expert whose afternoon of appraisals has become an anticipated regular summer series
event. Herc is an appraiser and auction manager with Grogan & Co. of Dedham, MA and has been active in the antique
world for over thirty years. He is a long-time member of the Frost Farm board of trustees and currently serves
as its co-chairman. There will be a $5.00 fee for each appraised item.
The 2016 Robert Frost Farm Summer Literary Series is funded by The Robert Frost Farm Board of Trustees and Friends of the Robert Frost Farm. Programs are free (except appraisals) and open to the public. For more information, call 603-432-3091.