Robinson, Edward Arlington (1869 - 1935)

Genre: Drama/Theatre/Film, Poetry

Born in the village of Head Tide, Maine (about 10 miles from Wiscasset), and raised in Gardiner, Robinson was a multiple Pulitzer-prize-winning poet and playwright. He became popular after Teddy Roosevelt wrote a favorable review of his second book of poems The Children of the Night (1897) in 1905.

Although Robinson lived most of his adult life in New York City (where he worked for the Customs House for years, one of several jobs arranged by Roosevelt) and in Peterboro, NH (summering in-residence at MacDowell Colony) many of his poems draw on his experiences of and the people he knew in Gardiner.

His poems Miniver Cheevy, Richard Cory, and Tilbury Town are all said to be inspired by people of Gardiner.

Robinson's literary inspirations were the Bible, Shakespeare, Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and Melville. He also liked Sherlock Holmes mysteries and the music of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Selected Bibliography

Poetical Works

  • Children of the Night (1897)
  • The Torrent and the Night Before (1896)
  • Captain Craig and other poems (1902)
  • The Town Down the River (1910)
  • The Man Against the Sky (1916)
  • Merlin (1917)
  • The Three Taverns (1920)
  • Lancelot (1920)
  • Avon's Harvest (1921)
  • Collected Poems (1921) (Pulitzer Prize)
  • Roman Bartholow (1923)
  • The Man Who Died Twice (1924) (Pulitzer Prize 1925)
  • Dionysus in Doubt (1925)
  • Tristram (1927) (Pulitzer Prize)
  • Sonnets, 1889-1927 (1928)
  • Cavender's House (1929)
  • Modred, A Fragment (1929)
  • The Glory of the Nightingales (1930)
  • Selected Poems (1930)
  • Matthias at the Door (1931)

Plays

  • Van Zorn (1914)
  • The Porcupine (1915)

Selected Resources

Selected Resources