Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874, in San Francisco, CA. After the death of his father in 1885, his family moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts, where Robert graduated from high school in 1892. He attended Dartmouth College for two months in 1892 and sold his first poem for publication, “My Butterfly: an Elegy,” in 1894. In 1895, he married Elinor White, with whom he had attended high school. Beginning in 1897 Frost attended Harvard University but was forced to leave after two years due to health concerns.

In 1900, Frost and his wife Elinor moved to a farm in New Hampshire which his grandfather purchased for them. Although Frost was largely unsuccessful as a farmer, his time in New Hampshire did inspire many of his poems. In 1912, in an effort to find publishers for his poetry, Frost and Elinor sold their New Hampshire property and moved to England.

While in England Frost’s first two books, A Boy’s Will and North of Boston were published. In 1915, buoyed by his success in England, Frost and Elinor returned to America where publishers were now eager to publish his poetry. In 1916, they settled down on a farm they purchased in Franconia, New Hampshire. In addition to his poetry, Frost had a long career as a teacher at Amherst University, Dartmouth University, the University of Michigan, and Middlebury College.

Frost was 86 years old when he read his poem "The Gift Outright" at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy on January 20, 1961. He died in Boston two years later, on January 29, 1963.

Frederick Schmidt began collecting Frost’s books while in high school. In 1942, while attending Dartmouth University, Schmidt was introduced to Robert Frost by Dartmouth’s chief librarian Harold Rugg. Schmidt and Frost bonded over their shared interests and would frequently discuss their love for poetry and nature. Robert Frost and Frederick Schmidt would remain friends throughout their lives and frequently correspond with each other.