Curators at a New York state university are combing through a trove of previously unseen writings and material about and from Robert Frost, the poetic giant who penned some of his most famous work while living in New Hampshire.

"It was a real delight," Michael Babinski, curator of the poetry collection at the University of Buffalo library, said of the material.

The collection, which includes letters, recordings and photographs to, from and about Frost, were donated to the University of Buffalo by Jonathan Reichert, a professor emeritus of physics and the son of Rabbi Victor Reichert, a close friend of Frost's, Babinski said.

He said scholars and experts are in the midst of studying the donation.

"The discovery remains in the hands of the scholars," he said.

Meanwhile, the library is digitizing it all to make it available for viewing online. Visitors to the University of Buffalo can also see the material in person, he said.

Babinski said experts have yet to discover unpublished poems, but the collection does have about 70 or so photographs and some material that looks like "a page that Frost may have been reworking." Reichert also donated a recording of Frost delivering a sermon at a Vermont church in 1942.

Frost lived on a farm in Derry from 1900 to 1911 before moving to Great Britain for four years. He then lived in Franconia at a home now maintained as "The Frost Place" year-round from 1915 to 1920 and then spent 19 summers there.

In Derry, he penned some of his most famous poems, including "Mending Wall" and "Tree at My Window."

He won four Pulitzer prizes for his poetry, including for the book "New Hampshire: A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes."



tbuckland@unionleader.com