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Strange Holiness
A pulitzer Prize winning collection of poems which richly praise the state of Maine, as well as the country.
- GenresPoetry
101 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1935
About the author
Robert Peter Tristram Coffin
53 books8 followersRobert Peter Tristram Coffin (1892-1955) was born in Brunswick on March 18, 1892 and grew up in Harpswell on Great Island on his father’s salt water farm.
Coffin graduated from Bowdoin College in 1915 at the top of his class, having won several prizes for his excellent writing, including the Hawthorne Prize for short stories twice. Awarded the Henry W. Longfellow fellowship, he spent a year at Princeton then went to Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar. His studies were interrupted by a year in the armed services during World War I.
In 1924 he published his volume of poems, Christchurch, the first of forty books. By 1936 he had won the Pulitzer Prize for Strange Holiness.
Other awards include Honorary Life Member, National Arts Club, 1931; Phi Beta Kappa Poet at Harvard, 1932; Gold Medal, National Honor Poet, 1935; and elected to National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1946.
R. P. T. Coffin lectured at the University of Indiana and at the University of Cincinnati. He was a member of the English Department at Wells College in Aurora, New York.
Coffin returned to Bowdoin to teach (1934-1955), and was honored there on July 9, 1948 when he read from his poems and displayed his drawings.
Additional resources
The Bowdoin College Library’s Special Collections Library holds many of his manuscripts, drafts, proofs, notes, personal records, lectures, plays, poems, books, recordings, and photographs.
“Epilogue.” Colby Quarterly. December, 1965.
Sanborn, Annie Coffin. The Life of Robert Peter Tristram Coffin and Family. Alton, New Hampshire. 1963.
(From http://maineanencyclopedia.com/coffin..., the Maine Encyclopedia)
Coffin graduated from Bowdoin College in 1915 at the top of his class, having won several prizes for his excellent writing, including the Hawthorne Prize for short stories twice. Awarded the Henry W. Longfellow fellowship, he spent a year at Princeton then went to Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar. His studies were interrupted by a year in the armed services during World War I.
In 1924 he published his volume of poems, Christchurch, the first of forty books. By 1936 he had won the Pulitzer Prize for Strange Holiness.
Other awards include Honorary Life Member, National Arts Club, 1931; Phi Beta Kappa Poet at Harvard, 1932; Gold Medal, National Honor Poet, 1935; and elected to National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1946.
R. P. T. Coffin lectured at the University of Indiana and at the University of Cincinnati. He was a member of the English Department at Wells College in Aurora, New York.
Coffin returned to Bowdoin to teach (1934-1955), and was honored there on July 9, 1948 when he read from his poems and displayed his drawings.
Additional resources
The Bowdoin College Library’s Special Collections Library holds many of his manuscripts, drafts, proofs, notes, personal records, lectures, plays, poems, books, recordings, and photographs.
“Epilogue.” Colby Quarterly. December, 1965.
Sanborn, Annie Coffin. The Life of Robert Peter Tristram Coffin and Family. Alton, New Hampshire. 1963.
(From http://maineanencyclopedia.com/coffin..., the Maine Encyclopedia)
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 8, 2022
Some truly excellent poems here, but also many others that don't distinguish themselves. The collection as a whole is very focused on nature imagery, to the point where it starts to feel a bit repetitive.
Displaying 1 of 1 review