2020 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
The Art and Letters of Robert Frost
| Project/Area Number |
17K02568
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| Research Institution | Doshisha University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2017-04-01 – 2022-03-31
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| Keywords | Robert Frost / American poetry / letters |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
I spent the first half of the 2020-2021 academic year on sabbatical in the United States. I was there to do work, generally speaking, on The Art and Letters of Robert Frost. More specifically, I was there to complete work on The Letters of Robert Frost, Volume 3: 1929-1936, the third in a five-volume edition on contract with Harvard University Press. The work I do requires me to visit and work in archives and libraries in New England and all along the east coast of the U.S. But when the pandemic arrived, all libraries and archives closed (in early March 2020), and they remained closed through the duration of my sabbatical. Fortunately, I was able to work from home and, together with my three co-editors, we completed work on The Letters of Robert Frost, Volume 3, reading copy-edited chapters of it during October 2020, and reading and finalizing page proofs of it in November and December 2020. (The production schedule was delayed a bit by the pandemic.) The book was published by Harvard University Press on April 30, 2021. I should add that from December 2020 through February 2021, I was able, with my co-editors, to complete first-draft transcriptions of about 550 letters that will go into volume four of the edition.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
Owing to closures and to travel restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19, I have, over the past year, been unable to conduct research in archives in the United States, and remain unable to do so as of this writing (May 2021). However, I continue to work from home, with documents I already have on hand, toward the competition of what will be The Letters of Robert Frost, Volume 4 (which we hope to have ready for publication late in 2022).
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
I will continue to work on the Frost Letters Project during the balance of the current academic year. I am also putting together a collection of essays about Frost, with a view toward publication as a book sometime over the course of the next few years.
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| Causes of Carryover |
As I have indicated, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I have had to defer all travel for the purposes of conducting research. Once travel restrictions are removed, I will begin again to work in archives of Frost’s literary manuscripts, all of which are located in the United States.
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