Frost's Farm Letter

. . . from a letter to James R. Wells dated July 27, 1930. (We found out later that Wells and his wife Hilda were the wealthy proprietors of Slide Mountain Press that had printed and published one of Frost's books the year before. The editor of Selected Letters refers to Wells as "an attractive playboy.") From what [Robert] Frost says in the letter, it appears that Wells has invited himself to visit Frost at his farm in Vermont and to ask for something from Frost. Frost essentially says, good luck. "Let's see you or anybody else extract anything from me in my present state of mind."

Why Frost was in this state of mind he doesn't say, but he warns Wells that if he shows up, Frost is going to put him to work.

"I ought to warn you if you come here you have to work digging out my fish duck dog and frog pond. You would go round New York sowing suspicion that my farm was the kind where there was no work done. There'll be some work done by you all right."

He goes on to tell Wells that when he comes he better bring rubber boots and Dutch Cleanser with him, and he rounds out the letter with this closing:

"You come here to get anything out of me and you're lucky if you get away even. I dont mean to be sinister. Only I'm a great person for utilizing waste power."

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